MEMORIAL   ADDRESSES 


LIFE   AND    CHARACTER 


CHARLES    SUMNER, 


(A    SENATOR    OF    MASSACHUSETTS,) 


DELIVERED    IN    TUB 


SENATE  AND  WOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES, 


FORTY-THIRD  CONGRESS,  FIRST  SESSION, 


APRIL    27,     1874, 


WITH    OTHER   CONGRESSIONAL  TRIBUTES  OF   RESPECT. 


PUBLISHED  BY  ORDER  OF  CONGRESS. 


WASHINGTON: 

GOVERNMENT   PRINTING   OFFICE. 
I874. 


ANNOUNCEMENTS 


THE  DEATH  OF  CHARLES  SUMNER, 

A      SENATOR     OF     MASSACHUSETTS. 


IN  THE  SENATE  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 
Thursday,  March  12,  1874. 

Rev.  BYRON  SUNDERLAND,  D.  D.,  Chaplain  of  the  Senate,  offered  up  the  follow 
ing  prayer  : 

O  Lord  God,  our  Father  in  heaven,  we  all  do  fade  as  a  leaf  before  Thee ;  one 
generation  cometh  and  another  goeth ;  and  so  Thou  standest  this  day  to  plead  with 
this  Thy  great  people.  Two  honored  heads  lie  low,  and  the  sighing  of  sister  cities 
responding  in  their  grief  is  heard  in  all  the  land.  The  grave  must  receive  her  own ; 
we  bow  in  silence  and  submission  to  Thy  stroke;  Christ  is  our  only  shield.  Amen. 

Mr.  ANTHONY,  of  Rhode  Island.  Mr.  President :  In  the  absence  of  the  Senator 
to  whom  this  saddest  duty  appertains,  and  who  is  detained  from  the  Senate  by  illness, 
the  surviving  Senator  from  Massachusetts,  I  have  been  requested  to  make  to  you 
the  formal  announcement  of  an  event  which  my  heart  refuses  to  accept,  and  which 
my  lips  hesitate  to  declare.  It  is  an  event  which  needs  not  to  be  announced,  for  its 
dark  shadow  rests  gloomily  upon  this  chamber,  and  not  only  upon  the  Senate  and  the 
capital,  but  upon  the  whole  country,  and  the  intelligence  of  which,  borne  on  the 
mysterious  wires  that  underlie  the  seas,  has  been  already  carried  to  the  remotest 
lands,  and  has  aroused  profoundest  sympathy  wherever  humanity  weeps  for  a  friend, 
wherever  liberty  deplores  an  advocate.  The  oldest  member  of  this  body  in  con 
tinuous  service,  he  who  yesterday  was  the  oldest,  beloved  for  the  graces  and  the 
virtues  of  his  personal  character;  admired  for  his  genius  and  his  accomplishments; 
reverenced  for  the  fidelity  with  which  he  adhered  to  his  convictions  ;  illustrious  for 
his  services  to  the  republic  and  to  the  world,  has  crossed  the  dark  river  that  divides 
us  from  the  "undiscovered  country." 

Charles  Sumner  died  yesterday.  To-day,  in  humble  submission  to  the  divine  will, 
we  meet  to  express  our  respect  for  his  character,  our  veneration  for  his  memory.  To 
morrow,  with  solemn  steps  and  with  sorrowing  hearts,  we  shall  bear  him  to  the 


ANNOUNCEMENTS      OF     THE 


Massachusetts  which  he  served  so  faithfully  and  which  loved  him  so  well ;  and  to  her 
soil,  precious  with  the  dust  of  patriotism  and  of  valor,  of  letters  and  of  art,  of  states 
manship  and  of  eloquence,  we  shall  commit  the  body  of  one  who  is  worthy  to  rest  by 
the  side  of  the  noblest  and  the  best  of  those  who,  in  the  centuries  of  her  history, 
have  made  her  the  model  of  a  free  commonwealth.  But  the  great  deeds  which 
illustrated  his  life  shall  not  be  buried  with  him,  and  never  shall  the  earth  cover 
the  immortal  principles  to  which  he  devoted  every  energy  of  his  soul — the  consumma 
tion  and  vindication  of  which,  as  his  highest  reward,  a  grac  ous  God  permitted  him 
to  witness. 

Mr.  President,  this  is  not  the  time,  nor  is  the  office  mine,  to  pronounce  the  words 
that  are  due  to  this  event.     A  future  hour  and  more  fitting  utterances  shall  interpret 
to  the  American  people  the  affectionate  respect  of  the  Senate  for  our  dead  associate,  the 
homage  which  it  renders  to  his  life  and  character. 
Mr.  President,  I  offer  the  following  resolutions  : 

Resolved,  That  a  committee  of  six  members  be  appointed  by  the  President  of  the 
Senate  pro  tempore,  to  take  order  for  superintending  the  funeral  of  CHARLES  SUMNER, 
late  a  member  of  this  body,  which  will  take  place  to-morrow  (Friday)  at  half-past 
twelve ;  and  that  the  Senate  will  attend  the  same. 

Resolved,  As  a  further  mark  of  respect  entertained  by  the  Senate  for  the  memory  of 
CHARLES  SUMNER,  and  his  long  and  distinguished  services  to  his  country,  that  his 
remains  be  removed  to  the  Commonwealth  of  Massachusetts,  in  charge  of  the  Ser- 
geant-at-Arms,  and  attended  by  a  committee  of  six  Senators,  to  be  appointed  by  the 
President  of  the  Senate  pro  tempore,  who  shall  have  full  power  to  carry  this  resolution 
into  effect. 

Resolved,  That,  as  an  additional  mark  of  respect  to  the  memory  of  the  deceased,  the 
Senate  do  now  adjourn. 

Mr.  SCHURZ,  of  Missouri.  I  can  say  nothing  to-day,  but  offer  the  following  as  an 
amendment  to  the  resolutions  : 

Resolved,  That  the  Secretary  communicate  these  proceedings  to  the  House  of  Rep 
resentatives,  and  invite  the  House  of  Representatives  to  attend  the  funeral  ceremony 
in  the  Senate  Chamber  to-morrow,  at  half-past  twelve  o'clock. 

Mr.  ANTHONY.  I  accept  the  amendment. 

Mr.  CONKLING,  of  New  York.  Mr.  President,  the  absence  of  a  committee  of  the 
Senate  to  follow  the  bier  to-day  of  one  who  once  presided  here,  is  enough  alone  to 
warn  us  of  the  fitness  of  pausing  for  a  space  from  the  din  and  business  of  life.  It  was 
my  purpose  to  move  that  the  Senate  adjourn  in  observance  of  the  funeral  of  Mr.  FILL- 
MORE  ;  but  meanwhile  we  are  covered  by  the  shadow  of  a  nearer  grief.  A  vacant 
chair  is  here,  long  held  by  a  Senator  of  distinguished  eminence,  and  one  of  the  most 
illustrious  of  Americans.  Surely  it  is  fit  that  we  should  arrest  the  business  of  the 
Senate  and  pay  tribute  to  the  long  and  remarkable  life  now  closed.  No  honor  will 
be  paid  to  the  dead  statesman  in  which  I  would  not  join  in  sincerity  and  respect,  and 
I  second  the  resolutions  moved  by  the  Senator  from  Rhode  Island  without  attempt 
ing  to  add  a  word  to  the  graceful  and  eloquent  thoughts  which  have  fallen  from  him. 
The  PRESIDENT  pro  tempore,  [Mr.  CARPENTER,  of  Wisconsin.]  Then  the  question 
is,  Will  the  Senate  accept  the  resolutions  as  modified  ? 
The  resolutions  were  agreed  to  unanimously. 

The  PRESIDENT  pro  tempore.  The  Senate  stands  adjourned  until  to-morrow  at 
twelve  o'clock. 


DEATH      OF     CHARLES      SUMNER. 


IN  THE  HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES. 
Thursday,  March  12,  1874. 

The  proceedings  of  the  Senate  on  the  announcement  of  the  death  of  CHARLES  SUM 
NER,  late  a  Senator  of  Massachusetts,  were  communicated  to  the  House,  and  were,  by 
direction  of  the  Speaker,  read. 

Mr.  E.  R.  HOAR,  of  Massachusetts.  Mr.  Speaker :  The  event  which  the  reso 
lutions  of  the  Senate  announce  fell  upon  the  ear  of  this  House  and  of  the  country 
yesterday  with  startling  suddenness.  Wherever  the  news  of  it  spreads  through  this 
broad  land,  not  only  in  this  city,  among  his  associates  in  the  public  councils  ;  not 
only  in  the  old  Commonwealth  of  which  he  was  the  pride  and  ornament,  but  in 
many  quiet  homes,  in  many  a  cabin  of  the  poor  and  lowly,  there  is  to-day  inexpres 
sible  tenderness  and  profound  sorrow. 

There  are  many  of  us  who  have  known  and  loved  the  great  Senator,  whom  this 
event  unfits  for  public  duties,  or  for  any  thoughts  other  than  those  of  that  pure  life, 
that  faithful  public  service,  that  assured  immortality. 

In  response  to  the  invitation  of  the  Senate  I  offer  these  resolutions  : 

Resolved,  That  this  House  will  attend  the  funeral  of  CHARLES  SUMNER,  a  Senator 
from  Massachusetts,  in  the  Senate  Chamber,  to-morrow,  at  half-past  twelve  o'clock, 
and  upon  its  return  to  this  Hall  the  Speaker  shall  declare  the  House  adjourned. 

Resolved,  That  a  committee  of  nine  members  be  appointed,  who,  with  the  mem 
bers  of  the  House  from  Massachusetts,  shall  accompany  the  body  of  the  deceased 
Senator  to  its  place  of  burial  in  that  Commonwealth. 

Resolved,  That,  as  a  testimonial  of  respect  for  the  memory  of  the  deceased,  the 
members  and  officers  of  this  House  will  wear  the  usual  badge  of  mourning  for  thirty 
days. 

The  question  being  taken  on  the  resolutions,  they  were  unanimously  adopted,  and, 
on  motion  of  Mr.  E.  R.  HOAR,  the  House  adjourned. 


FUNERAL     CEREMONIES      OF 


THE  FUNERAL  CEREMONIES. 

The  Congressional  Funeral  Ceremonies  over  the  remains  of  Charles  Sumner  were 
performed  in  the  Senate  Chamber  on  Friday  the  I3th  of  March,  under  the  direction 
of  the  committee  of  arrangements,  Senators  ANTHONY,  SCHURZ,  FRELINGHUYSEN, 
MORRILL  of  Maine,  STEVENSON,  and  SHERMAN. 

The  members  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  headed  by  its  Speaker  and  Clerk; 
the  President  of  the  United  States  and  the  members  of  his  Cabinet;  the  Diplomatic 
Corps ;  the  Supreme  Court ;  officers  of  the  Army,  Navy,  and  Marine  Corps,  with  other 
officials ;  the  personal  friends  of  the  deceased  and  the  Massachusetts  delegation  in 
Congress,  were  assigned  seats  on  the  floor  of  the  Senate. 

At  half  past  twelve  the  remains  were  brought  from  the  rotunda  into  the  Senate 
Chamber,  preceded  by  the  Sergeant-atArms  of  the  Senate  and  the  committee  of  ar 
rangements,  and  escorted  by  the  pall-bearers,  Senators  ANTHONY,  SCHURZ,  SAR 
GENT,  OGLtSBY,  'STOCKTON,  and  McCREERY. 

Rev.  J.  G.  BUTLER,  Chaplain  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  read  I  Cor.,  xv., 
22-28,  and  then  offered  the  following  prayer : 

Great  God,  we  bow  reverently  in  Thy  presence.  Thou  hast  done  it.  Teach  us  wis 
dom  as  we  walk  among  the  open  graves.  Bless  the  millions  whose  hearts  gather 
tenderly  around  this  coffin  to-day.  Bless  our  own  great  land,  and  give  unto  us  con 
tinued  victories  of  truth  and  righteousness.  We  ask  these  mercies  in  the  name  and 
for  the  sake  of  Him  who  hath  taught  us,  when  we  pray,  to  say :  Our  Father,  who 
art  in  heaven,  hallowed  be  Thy  name ;  Thy  kingdom  come ;  Thy  will  be  done  on 
earth  as  it  is  in  Heaven.  Give  us  this  day  our  daily  bread ;  and  forgive  us  our 
trespasses  as  we  forgive  those  who  trespass  against  us,  and  lead  us  not  into  temp 
tation,  but  deliver  us  from  evil :  for  Thine  is  the  kingdom,  and  the  power,  and  the 
glory,  forever.  '  Amen. 

Rev.  BYRON  SUNDERLAND,  D.  D.,  Chaplain  of  the  Senate,  read  Psalm  xxxix, 
5-13,  and  Psalm  xc,  and  offered  the  following  prayer: 

Let  us  pray.  Almighty  and  everlasting  God,  before  Whom  the  world,  and  all  that 
it  contains,  is  as  the  dust  of  the  balance ;  before  Whom  change  and  time  flee  away 
like  a  shadow ;  yet  art  Thou  the  confidence  of  all  the  ends  of  the  earth ;  for  it  is  in 
Thee  that  we  live,  and  move,  and  have  our  being ;  because  Thou  hast  made  of  one 
blood  all  men  who  dwell  on  the  face  of  the  earth  ;  because  Thou  hast  formed  and 
fashioned  us,  and  placed  us  in  our  lot.  Thou  hast  appointed  the  bounds  of  our  hab 
itation,  and  Thou  hast  numbered  all  our  days  :  and  it  has  pleased  Thee,  O  Lord,  our 
God,  in  the  fullness  of  Thine  own  time,  to  send  among  us  Thy  son,  our  Saviour, 
Jesus  Christ,  the  Lord  God  manifest  in  the  flesh,  to  bring  to  us  the  expectation  of 
light  and  life,  and  of  immortality.  And  so  with  Him,  in  the  successive  centuries,  it 
has  pleased  Thee  to  raise  up  the  prophets  and  apostles,  the  heroes  and  princes  of  the 
world.  It  has  pleased  Thee,  in  the  conflict  and  turmoil  of  this  our  mortal  state,  to 


CHARLES     SUMNER. 


send  forth  the  ministers  of  Thy  grace  and  providence,  endowed  and  panoplied  for 
their  mighty  task.  And  so,  in  all  the  crises  of  the  times,  when  enormous  evils  had 
to  be  encountered ;  when  the  old  order  of  things  had  to  be  overthrown ;  when  the 
new  conditions  for  the  new  energies  of  the  human  race  had  to  be  created,  Thou  hast 
planted  Thy  workmen  at  every  point,  and  Thou  hast  fitted,  ana  guarded,  and  upheld 
them  with  courage  and  with  strength. 

O,  Lord  our  God,  how  marvelous  are  all  Thy  works  and  ways !  How  marvel 
ous  dost  Thou  still  continue  this  day  before  us  and  before  all  men,  as  much  in  re 
moving  away  Thy  servants  from  their  field  of  labor  as  in  sending  them  into  it  when 
Thou  wilt ;  so  that  the  day  of  our  death  is  fuller  of  meaning  than  the  day  of  our 
birth,  because  it  is  a  grander  lesson  of  our  manhood,  because  it  is  a  chapter  far  ad 
vanced  in  the  book  of  human  destiny. 

And  now  Thou  hast  removed  away  from  us  a  man  who  had  stood  so  long  as  a 
prince  of  the  earth,  a  man  whose  name  and  life  and  character  and  fame  are  forever 
linked  with  all  that  is  sacred  in  human  institutions,  and  all  that  is  dear  to  human 
hearts.  O  Lord,  our  God,  we  are  all  bereaved  together.  The  Senate,  the  Congress, 
the  capital,  the  country,  all  have  been  made  desolate.  And  the  old  Plymouth  State, 
where  so  long  ago  the  Pilgrims  came — she  sits  to-day  in  mourning,  a  mother  weep 
ing  for  her  prostrate  son;  and  the  white  men  and  black  men,  and  all  men  of  every 
name  and  race  throughout  the  world,  shall  this  day  be  touched  with  the  grief  of  this 
sudden  stroke  of  Thy  providence.  But  we  can  say  nothing  against  it  before  Thee, 
O  Thou  righteous  Judge  and  Supreme  Ruler  of  mankind.  Yet  peradventure  Thou 
wilt  vouchsafe  Thine  ear  to  hear  the  prayer  of  Thy  servants  now  for  all  those  who 
have  been  afflicted  in  this  dispensation,  for  the  surviving  but  scattered  members  of 
his  own  family  and  kindred,  for  those  who  were  so  near  to  his  person  and  in  his  pres 
ence  through  all  the  phases  of  his  private  and  public  life;  for  those  children  of  that 
enduring  race  for  whose  advancement  his  great  powers  have  been  so  long  employed; 
for  all  his  companions  and  contemporaries  in  the  high  and  lofty  circles  of  human 
civilization,  both  at  home  and  abroad;  for  his  colleagues  and  fellow-Senators  in  this 
chamber,  and  for  the  Representatives,  the  people,  and  the  authorities  of  his  native 
State ;  and  for  all  those  in  every  class  and  in  every  condition  who  this  day  so  sin 
cerely  lament  his  loss.  O,  grant  to  all  these  the  grace  and  the  consolation  of  Thy 
Spirit.  Sanctify  to  them  and  to  this  nation  this  most  impressive  instruction  of  Thy 
providence. 

And  now  we  beseech  Thee,  O  Lord,  bless  Thy  servant  the  President  of  the 
United  States,  and  the  members  of  his  Cabinet;  bless  the  governors  and  legislatures 
of  the  States;  and,  we  beseech  Thee,  bless  the  judges  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  • 
United  States,  and  all  the  magistrates  in  the  land.  Bless  the  officers  and  men  of  the 
Army  and  Navy  of  the  United  States.  Bless  all  that  are  in  positions  of  responsi 
bility,  of  trust,  and  of  honor  among  this  great  people.  Bless  the  teachers  and  in 
structors  of  the  nation.  Bless  those  who  have  the  charge  of  the  transmission  of  intel 
ligence,  and  the  conductors  of  the  public  press.  And  we  beseech  Thee,  O  Lord,  bless 
all  that  are  engaged  in  any  walk  or  pursuit  of  life,  in  any  department  of  human  labor 
or  enterprise,  for  the  promotion  of  the  race  and  the  comfort  of  this  world.  And  we 
beseech  Thee,  O  Lord,  bless  any  that  may  be  under  the  pains  and  penalties  and 
burdens  of  this  life,  to  cheer,  to  comfort,  to  strengthen,  and  to  uphold  them. 


FUNERAL     CEREMONIES     OF 


And  now,  we  beseech  Thee,  to  give  to  us,  one  and  all,  a  sense  of  true  humility 
and  unfeigned  contrition  for  our  sins.  Fill  us  with  the  spirit  of  repentance  toward 
Thee  and  faith  in  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  Pardon  our  iniquities,  and  blot  out  our 
transgressions  before  Thee;  and  accept  us,  one  and  all,  as  Thy  sons  and  daughters, 
through  whom  alone,  and  Thy  work  of  atonement  and  effectual  intercession,  we  shall 
be  saved. 

And  now,  O  Lord  our  God,  be  graciously  pleased  to  go  with  those  who  shall  bear 
away  forever  from  this  place  the  body  of  our  lamented  friend.  Give  them  safe  con 
duct  in  the  sad  journey;  and  we  beseech  Thee,  in  Thy  kind  providence,  let  all  the 
arrangements  for  his  obsequies  be  fittingly  made  among  that  noble  but  now  stricken 
people  who  await  the  arrival  of  the  funeral-train  by  the  old  Cradle  of  Liberty. 

O  God,  the  God  of  our  fathers,  bless  this  nation  and  all  the  nations.    Bless  us  and 
all  men  together.     And,  when  we  come  to  die,  open  Thou  for  us  the  portals  of  eter 
nity,  and  crown  every  soul  with  a  pure,  a  blessed,  and  a  glorious  immortality. 
Through  Jesus  Christ,  our  Lord  and  Saviour.     Amen. 

The  PRESIDENT  pro  tempore,  [Senator  CARPENTER,  of  Wisconsin.]  The  services 
to  be  performed  by  the  committee  of  arrangements  having  been  terminated,  the  Senate 
of  the  United  States  intrusts  the  mortal  remains  of  CHARLES  SUMNER  to  its  Sergeant- 
at-Arms  and  a  committee  appointed  by  it,  charged  with  the  melancholy  duty  of  con 
veying  them  to  his  home,  there  to  be  committed,  earth  to  earth,  ashes  to  ashes,  dust 
to  dust,  in  the  soil  of  the  Commonwealth  of  Massachusetts.  Peace  to  his  ashes  ! 

The  remains  were  then  escorted  by  many  of  those  present  to  the  station  of  the 
Baltimore  and  Potomac  Railroad,  where  they  were  placed  on  a  special  train,  which 
left  at  3  o'clock,  conveying  also  the  Senate  committee  of  arrangements — Senators 
ANTHONY,  SCHURZ,  SARGENT,  OGLESBY,  STOCKTON,  and  MCCREERY,  with  the 
House  committee :  Representatives  HURLBURT,  HALE,  FOSTER,  RAINEY,  CLAY 
TON,  SCUDDER,  RANDALL,  BECK,  and  HANCOCK;  the  Chaplain  of  the  Senate;  the 
physician,  the  private  secretary,  the  former  committee-clerk,  and  an  executor  of  the 
deceased ;  and  the  members  of  the  Massachusetts  delegation  in  Congress,  attended 
by  the  Sergeant-at-Arms  of  the  Senate. 

Proper-  tributes  of  respect  were  paid  at  Philadelphia,  New  York,  New  Haven, 
Hartford,  Springfield,  Worcester,  and  intermediate  stations.  When  the  funeral-train 
entered  the  State  of  Connecticut,  Colonel  Chanley,  of  the  military  staff  of  Governor 
Ingersoll,  and  W.  T.  Ingersoll,  the  governor's  private  secretary,  presented  a  letter 
in  which  the  governor,  in  testimony  of  the  public  respect  for  the  mournful  duty  of 
the  Congressional  committee,  had  ordered  those  members  of  his  official  family  to 
accompany  them  through  the  State.  At  Springfield,  Colonels  Storer  and  Palfrey,  of 
the  staff  of  Governor  Washburn,  of  Massachusetts,  with  a  committee  of  the  State 
legislature,  met  the  funeral-train  to  accompany  the  Congressional  committee  to 
Boston. 

Arriving  at  Boston,  the  remains,  with  their  escort,  were  taken  to  the  State-house, 
and  were  borne  into  Doric  Hall,  where  a  catafalque  had  been  prepared  for  their  re 
ception.  The  Shaw  Guard,  an  infantry  company  composed  of  colored  men,  were 
posted  as  a  guard  of  honor  about  the  catafalque,  and  around  it  stood  Governor 
Washburn,  with  his  staff,  members  of  the  legislature,  and  many  distinguished  citizens 
of  Massachusetts. 


CHARLES      SUMNER. 


Senator  ANTHONY,  chairman  of  the  Senate  committee,  having  been  presented  to 
Governor  WASIIHURN  by  Colonel  STORER,  of  his  staff,  said: 

May  it  please  Your  Excellency :  We  are  commanded  by  the  Senate  to  render  back 
to  you  your  illustrious  dead.  Nearly  a  quarter  of  a  century  ago,  you  dedicated  to 
the  public  service  a  man  who  was  even  then  greatly  distinguished.  lie  remained  in 
it,  quickening  its  patriotism,  informing  its  counsels,  and  leading  in  its  deliberations, 
until,  having  survived  in  continuous  service  all  his  original  associates,  he  has  closed 
his  earthly  career.  With  reverent  hands,  we  bring  to  you  his  mortal  part,  that  it 
may  be  committed  to  the  soil  of  the  renowned  commonwealth  that  gave  him  birth. 
Take  it ;  it  is  yours.  The  part  which  we  do  not  return  to  you  is  not  wholly  yours 
to  receive,  nor  altogether  ours  to  give.  It  belongs  to  the  country,  to  mankind,  to 
freedom,  to  civilization,  to  humanity.  We  come  to  you  with  the  emblems  of  mourn 
ing,  which  faintly  typify  the  sorrow  that  swells  the  breasts  which  they  cover.  So 
much  we  must  concede  to  the  infirmity  of  human  nature.  But,  in  the  view  of  reason 
and  philosophy,  is  it  not  rather  a  matter  of  high  exultation  that  a  life  so  pure  in  its 
personal  qualities,  so  high  in  its  public  aims,  so  fortunate  in  the  fruition  of  noble 
effort,  has  closed  safely,  without  a  stain,  before  age  had  impaired  its  intellectual  vigor, 
before  time  had  dimmed  the  luster  of  its  genius! 

May  it  please  Your  Excellency :  Our  mission  is  completed.  We  commit  to  you 
the  body  of  CHARLES  SUMNER.  His  undying  fame  the  Muse  of  History  has  already 
taken  into  her  keeping. 

Governor  WASHBURN,  advancing  towards  the  Senate  committee,  replied: 

Gentlemen:  It  becomes  my  painful  duty  to  receive  from  your  hands  all  that 
remains  of  our  Great  Senator.  I  wish  to  thank  you,  in  the  name  of  the  Slate,  for 
your  labor  of  love,  in  thus  transmitting  to  our  keeping  this  precious  dust.  We 
receive  it  at  your  hands  with  the  assurance  that  it  shall  be  guarded  most  tenderly, 
and  the  spot  to  which  it  shall  be  borne  for  its  final  resting-place,  being  bapused  by 
such  precious  blood,  shall  ever  hereafter  be  looked  upon  as  consecrated  ground.  In 
the  mean  time,  I  commit  it  to  the  careful  keeping  of  the  committee  of  our  legislature, 
selected  for  this  special  purpose.  Permit  me  to  welcome  you  to  the  hospitalities  of  our 
State,  and  to  assure  you  that  no  effort  of  ours  shall  be  wanting  to  make  your  brief 
stay  with  us  as  agreeable  as  possible  under  the  circumstances  which  have  brought 
you  hither. 

Thanking  you  again  for  your  marked  sympathy  in  this  hour  of  sore  trial,  I  bid 
you  all  a  hearty  welcome,  with  the  assurance  that  your  tender  regard  on  this  occasion 
shall  never  be  forgotten. 

The  remains  of  CHARLES  SUMNER  lay  in  state  on  Sunday  and  on  Monday  morning 
in  the  Doric  Hall,  at  the  state-house.  On  Monday,  at  3  o'clock  p.  m.,  they  were 
removed  to  the  King's  Chapel,  followed  by  the  Congressional  committees,  the  Vice- 
President  of  the  United  States,  the  Massachusetts  delegation  in  Congress,  the  Gov 
ernor  and  the  Legislature  of  Massachusetts,  and  many  other  distinguished  persons. 

At  the  King's  Chapel  the  funeral-services  were  performed,  and  the  remains  were 
then  escorted  to  the  cemetery  at  Mount  Auburn,  where,  after  the  final  ceremonies, 
they  were  interred. 


ADDRESSES 


DEATH  OF  CHARLES  SUMNER. 


IN  THE  SENATE  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES, 

MONDAY,  APRIL  27,  1874. 


Rev.  BYRON  SUNDERLAND,  D.  D.,  Chaplain  of  the  Senate,  offered 
the  following 


PRAYER : 


Almighty  and  Everlasting  God,  on  this  day  of  solemn  conference 
we  come  to  bow  before  Thee  in  deep  humility,  for  the  memory  of  the 
distinguished  dead  of  this  Senate  comes  freshly  before  us  now ;  the 
shadow  of  life's  great  mystery  still  lingers  here;  and  sacred  and  melt 
ing  thoughts  are  in  the  air  around  us,  and  kindly  voices  seem  to  be 
telling  us  of  the  tokens  and  admonitions  of  Thy  will.  O,  may  the 
vacant  place  and  this  solemn  pause  in  this  Chamber  to-day  impress 
their  rightful  lessons  on  every  heart,  for  great  and  small  are  all  alike 
before  Thee,  and  men  from  every  station  must  go  the  way  of  all  the 
earth ;  Thou  only  remainest  the  same  and  Thy  years  fail  not;  and  so, 
O,  Lord  God,  we  pray  that  we  may  all  live  and  all  die  in  Thee.  Have 
Thou  the  charge  of  these  services  to-day;  have  Thou  the  charge  of 
all  these  Thy  servants,  and  of  all  men ;  and  grant  that  we  may  be 
prepared,  when  this  life  is  over,  to  see  Thy  face  in  peace.  Through 
Jesus  Christ.  Amen. 


12          ADDRESS  OF  MR.  BOUT  WELL  ON  THE 


ADDRESS  OF    MR.  ^OUTWELL,  OF  ^MASSACHUSETTS. 

Mr.  PRESIDENT,  agreeably  to  notice  already  given,  I  now  submit 
to  the  Senate  two  resolutions  designed  to  furnish  an  opportunity  for 
the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  to  offer  appropriate  tributes 
to  the  character  and  public  services  of  CHARLES  SUMNER,  and  I  ask 
for  their  present  consideration. 

The  Chief  Clerk  read  the  resolutions,  as  follows  : 

Resolved  by  the  Senate,  That,  as  an  additional  mark  of  respect  to 
the  memory  of  CHARLES  SUMNER,  long  a  Senator  from  Massachu 
setts,  business  be  now  suspended,  that  the  friends  and  associates  of 
the  deceased  may  pay  fitting  tribute  to  his  public  and  private  vir 
tues. 

Resolved,  That  the  Secretary  of  the  Senate  communicate  these 
resolutions  to  the  House  of  Representatives. 

The  resolutions  were  adopted  unanimously. 

Mr.  PRESIDENT,  the  time  that  has  passed  since  the  death  of  Mr. 
SUMNER  has  assuaged  the  bitterness  of  our  grief,  but  the  first  feeling 
of  sadness  rests  with  undiminished  weight  upon  every  heart.  Here 
and  by  us,  more  than  elsewhere  and  by  others,  his  presence  will  be 
missed.  For  nearly  twenty-three  years  he  was  a  member  of  the  Sen 
ate,  and  for  a  considerable  period  its  senior. 

To  all  of  us  he  was  an  acquaintance,  and  to  many  of  us  an  inti 
mate  friend. 

To  the  cultivated  classes  of  Europe  and  America  he  was  known 
as  a  ripe  scholar,  a  sincere  philanthropist,  an  ardent  and  consistent 
lover  of  liberty  and  defender  of  the  right,  an  experienced  statesman, 
trained  especially  in  English  and  American  constitutional  history,  and 
the  traditions,  genius,  and  practice  of  European  and  American  diplo 
macy  ;  a  lover  of  art ;  an  orator  fully  equipped,  according  to  the 
requirements  mentioned  by  Cicero,  for  the  forum  in  which  his  maturer 
years  were  spent ;  and,  more  than  all,  a  man  of  pure  purposes  in  pri 
vate  and  public  affairs. 


LIFE    AND    CHARACTER    OF    CHARLES    SUMNER. 


For  nearly  twenty-five  years  I  enjoyed  his  acquaintance,  and  for 
more  than  half  that  period  his  intimate  friendship.  Forgetting  for 
the  moment  my  relations  to  him,  it  is  to  be  said  that  his  friendships 
were  first  moral  and  intellectual,  to  which  he  added  with  a  liberal 
hand  the  civilities,  amenities,  and  blessings  of  cultivated  social  life. 

He  came  to  the  Senate  not  only  as  the  representative  of  the  Com 
monwealth  of  Massachusetts,  but  as  the  representative  of  an  idea  to 
which  the  State  was  even  then  already  pledged.  The  men  who 
supported  him  in  1851  were,  with  a  few  exceptions,  his  supporters 
in  1857,  1863,  and  1869.  Mr.  SUMNER  was  at  times  in  advance  of 
the  people  of  the  State,  but  in  his  hostility  to  the  institution  of 
slavery,  in  his  efforts  for  its  abolition  and  the  reconstruction  of  the 
Government  upon  the  basis  of  freedom,  he  never  misrepresented 
Massachusetts. 

In  the  cause  of  liberty  he  was  apostle,  martyr,  and  finally  con 
queror.  In  this  cause,  and  by  nature  as  well,  he  was  self-reliant, 
self-asserting,  and  aggressive,  and,  therefore,  his  life,  as  he  often 
said,  was  a  life  of  controversy.  His  nature  was  imperious,  he  made 
little  allowance  for  the  diversities  among  men,  and  often  he  dealt 
harshly  with  those  who  opposed  or  failed  to  accept  his  views.  It  is, 
however,  a  happy  memory  for  his  friends  and  countrymen  that  after 
his  return  from  Europe  he  had  only  kind  words  for  all,  even  for 
those  with  whom  he  had  most  differed  upon  personal  and  public 
questions. 

First  of  all,  Mr.  SUMNER  was  devoted  to  liberty ;  not  to  English 
liberty  or  to  American  liberty,  but  to  liberty.  He  accepted,  in  their 
fullest  meaning,  the  words  of  Kossuth,  "  Liberty  is  Liberty,  as  God 
is  God." 

In  his  efforts  to  establish  liberty  in  America  he  gave  a  free  con 
struction  to  the  original  Constitution  for  the  purpose  of  securing  right 
and  justice  to  all  who  were  within  its  jurisdiction;  and  the  powers  of 
a  constitution  may  well  be  construed  liberally  in  the  cause  of  right 


14         ADDRESS  OF  MR.  BOUT  WELL  ON  THE 

and  justice,  but  they  can  never  be  too  much  circumscribed  in  the 
service  of  wrong  and  oppression. 

There  are  limitations  to  every  form  of  human  greatness.  Mr. 
SUMNER  was  a  follower  of  ideas.  A  general  declaration  is  the  fullest 
expression  of  ideas ;  and  Mr.  SUMNER  was  inclined  to  trust  general 
declarations,  and  to  embody  them  in  the  Constitution  and  laws. 
Institutions,  indeed,  are  often  unsatisfactory  when  tested  by  the 
ideas  they  are  designed  to  represent. 

I  speak  rather  of  what  has  been  than  of  our  hopes  of  the  future. 
Our  own  Constitution  is  now  a  near  approach  to  the  Declaration  of 
Independence,  and  we  may  anticipate  the  time  when  local  govern 
ments  and  independent  nations,  in  the  discharge  of  their  duties  and 
the  exercise  of  their  powers,  will  conform  practically  to  the  best  ideas 
of  justice  and  peace.  Mr.  SUMNER  was  impatient  of  delay,  and 
hence  he  accepted  reluctantly  those  amendments  to  the  Constitution 
which  to  others  seemed  sufficient  for  the  protection  of  personal  and 
public  rights.  It  is,  therefore,  to  be  admitted  that  in  the  business  of 
government,  and  for  the  time  in  which  he  lived,  Mr.  SUMNER  was  not 
always  a  practical  statesman. 

The  world  is  usually  too  busy  to  concern  itself  with  the  men  of  the 
past  unless  they  have  special  claims  to  consideration.  The  immortal 
few  in  politics  and  government  are  those  who  have  led  in  proceed 
ings  in  which  men  of  all  times  are  interested.  The  American  Revo 
lution  gave  a  few  such  names  to  the  country  and  the  world;  the 
contest  for  the  overthrow  of  slavery  added  others.  Among  these  we 
may  venture  to  place  CHARLES  SUMNER,  whose  labors,  fidelity,  and 
sufferings  can  never  be  omitted  from  the  history  of  the  contest. 

As  the  influence  of  that  contest  widens  and  deepens  in  the  current 
of  universal  human  life,  the  services  of  the  men  engaged  in  it  will  be 
more  appreciated  throughout  the  world.  The  blow  struck  at  slavery 
in  America  will  prove  as  effectual  against  slavery  in  every  other  coun 
try.  While  slavery  existed  with  us,  and  suffrage  was  limited,  and  the 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER   OF   CHARLES    SUMNER.  15 

truths  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence  were  not  realized  in  the 
Government,  monarchies  and  aristocracies  had  a  defense  in  the  ad 
mitted  failure  of  the  great  Republic.  That  defense  is  now  taken 
away,  and,  one  after  another,  personal  and  class  governments  must 
fall.  Thus  will  Mr.  SUMNER  justly  claim  consideration  in  other  lands 
and  from  future  times. 

There  is,  however,  an  immortality  not  personal  which  is  even  more 
enduring.  The  power  of  a  great  life,  of  a  superior  human  intellect, 
spreads  far  beyond  the  knowledge  of  names,  and  is  transmitted  to 
generations  that  have  no  means  of  tracing  the  influences  to  their 
source.  These  influences  become  woven  into  the  civilization,  lit 
erature,  and  politics  of  nations,  control  their  fortunes,  shape  their 
destinies,  and  work  out  good  or  evil  results  of  the  most  important 
character. 

It  cannot  be  denied  that  in  the  efforts  made  by  Mr.  SUMNER  in 
behalf  of  human  liberty  and  universal  peace  he  has  given  new  force 
to  the  most  benign  influences,  or  that  his  power,  mingled  with  numer 
ous  other  contributions  of  the  past,  present,  and  the  future,  will  con 
tribute  to  the  general  welfare  of  the  human  race. 

But  whether  his  name  be  remembered  or  forgotten,  his  power  will 
continue.  When  a  person  has  disappeared  from  the  stage  of  human 
action,  his  name,  even  if  known  to  future  generations,  is  of  little  con 
sequence  to  them;  the  influence  of  his  life  is  all  of  value  that  remains. 

Thus  has  Mr.  SUMNER  bound  himself  to  his  countrymen  of  two 
races,  and  to  the  civilized  world,  by  cords  that  may  be  traced  through 
the  ages  as  long  as  justice  shall  find  defenders  or  the  divine  spirit  of 
liberty  shall  animate  mankind. 

But  these  thoughts  relate  to  the  uncertain  future.  We  are  called 
in  the  present  to  accept  the  solemn  truth  that  the  death  of  CHARLES 
SUMNER  is  a  signal  loss  to  the  Senate  and  people  of  the  United  States, 
alleviated  in  some  degree  by  the  belief  that  his  life,  character,  and 
public  services,  especially  in  favor  of  human  liberty  and  universal 


i6 


ADDRESS     OF     MR.     THURMAN     ON   THE 


peace,  will  ever  be  held  in  grateful  remembrance  by  his  countrymen, 
and  the  knowledge  thereof  transmitted  to  posterity  as  an  example 
for  future  generations. 


ADDRESS    OF 


THURMAN,    OF 


Mr.  PRESIDENT,  my  personal  acquaintance  with  CHARLES  SUMNER 
began  a  few  days  after  I  took  my  seat  in  the  Senate  five  years  ago. 
It  soon  ripened  into  relations  approaching  intimacy,  and  a  personal 
friendship  resulted  that  was  never  marred  for  a  moment  by  any  polit 
ical  differences,  however  great  and  decided.  Therefore  it  is  that  I 
speak  to-day;  and  speak  not  so  much  of  the  politician  or  statesman 
as  of  the  man.  I  leave  to  those  who  coincided  with  him  in  public 
affairs  to  delineate  his  public  services  in  such  terms  as  to  them  seems 
just.  I  offer  a  humble  tribute  to  his  personal  character. 

It  appears  to  me  that  one  of  the  most  striking  peculiarities  of  Mr. 
SUMNER'S  mind  was  breadth  rather  than  accuracy;  a  predominance  of 
the  ideal  over  the  practical;  a  devotion  to  a  great  idea  without  due 
regard  to  its  unavoidable  limitations.  That  this  intellectual  bent 
sometimes  led  him  to  overlook  what  should  have  been  seen,  to  dis 
regard  obstacles  that  a  more  practical  man  would  have  felt  bound  to 
respect,  to  advance  theories  that,  however  beautiful  in  the  abstract, 
were  hedged  about  by  limitations  in  the  concrete,  and  often  made 
him  —  especially  upon  constitutional  and  legal  questions  —  an  inexact 
and  inconclusive  reasoner,  must  be  admitted,  I  think,  by  even  his  most 
ardent  admirers.  Who  of  us  has  forgotten  how  he,  in  effect,  placed 
the  Declaration  of  Independence  above  the  Constitution,  and  de 
duced  from  it  powers  of  government  that  no  one  but  himself  ever 
thought  were  conferred  by  the  fundamental  law?  Who  can  forget 
his  immeasurable  demands  upon  Great  Britain  by  reason  of  her  con 
duct  during  our  civil  war?  Who  does  not  remember  his  oft-repeated 


LIFE    AND    CHARACTER   OF   CHARLES    SUMNER.  17 

idea  that  the  islands  of  the  Caribbean  Sea  and  the  Gulf  should  be 
wholly  abandoned  to  the  African  race?  But  in  all  these  and  other 
instances  that  might  be  named  his  views,  however  impracticable  they 
seemed  to  others,  were  in  accordance  with  a  lofty  ideal  that  was 
satisfactory  to  himself,  and  from  which  he  would  not  willingly  depart. 

Another  trait  of  Mr.  SUMNER  was  his  love  of  discussion.  He  never 
within  my  knowledge  shrunk  from  it;  and  he  was  the  determined 
opponent  of  all  attempts  to  limit  debate  in  the  Senate  by  a  previous 
question  or  other  restrictive  rule.  He  spoke  often  and  elaborately 
himself,  and  he  was  the  best,  and  perhaps  the  most  courteous,  listener 
among  us  to  the  speeches  of  others.  He  placed  a  very  high  estimate 
upon  the  power  and  effect  of  discussion,  often  in  conversation  citing 
instances  of  measures  being  carried  or  defeated  by  a  thorough  debate. 
And  it  so  happens  that  the  last  words  he  ever  spoke  to  me  (just  after 
an  adverse  vote  on  a  bill  he  had  opposed)  were  these:  "Thurman, 
this  is  another  instance  of  the  good  effects  of  debate.  Had  the  vote 
been  taken  on  this  bill  without  discussion  it  would  have  passed 
almost  unanimously." 

It  is  an  old  saying,  that  the  foundation  of  politeness  is  benevolence; 
which  leads  us  to  contribute  to  the  happiness  of  others  and  avoid 
everything  that  could  give  them  pain.  All  who  knew  Mr.  SUMNER 
in  social  life  will  bear  witness  that  he  exemplified  the  truth  of  this 
saying.  I  never  knew  him  in  a  mixed  company  to  introduce  ariy 
topic  that  might  prove  disagreeable  to  any  one  present;  and  when, by 
inadvertence  or  otherwise,  such  a  topic  was  introduced  by  others,  he 
was  always  one  of  the  first  to  divert  the  conversation  to  some  other 
subject.  And  I  can  bear  witness  that  he  could  sit  down  with  a  polit 
ical  opponent  and  discuss  political  questions,  upon  which  they  differed 
most  widely,  without  for  a  single  moment  losing  his  temper  or  mani 
festing  a  want  of  respect  for  the  views  of  his  adversary.  This,  in  my 
opinion,  Mr.  President,  deserves  to  be  ranked  among  the  virtues;  and 
when  we  add  that  in  the  conversation  of  the  deceased  there  never 


l8          ADDRESS  OF  MR.  THURMAN  ON  THE 

was  anything  low  or  vulgar,  but,  on  the  contrary,  intellect,  refinement, 
and  taste  marked  all  that  was  said,  we  contemplate  a  character  whose 
amiability,  high  breeding,  and  politeness  will  ever  command  our 
respect  and  admiration. 

It  has  been  very  common  to  say  that  Mr.  SUMNER  was  an  egotist, 
and  this  I  suppose  is  the  popular  opinion.  It  may  be  true  that,  tried 
by  the  standard  of  modern  manners,  he  was  egotistical;  but  tried  by 
that  ancient  standard  with  which  his  learning  had  made  him  so 
familiar,  compared  for  example  with  Demosthenes  or  Cicero,  he  was 
a  modest  man.  I  must  say  that  in  five  years  of  somewhat  intimate 
acquaintance  I  never  knew  him  offensively  egotistical.  That  he 
found  pleasure  in  speaking  of  the  part  he  had  borne  in  public  affairs 
is  undoubtedly  true;  but  what  man  ever  lived  who  had  been  long  in 
public  life,  and  who  had  arrived  at  that  age  when  retrospection 
becomes  a  habit  of  the  mind,  who  did  not  often  speak  of  himself  and 
of  what  he  had  said  and  done?  If  we  listen  with  pleasure  and 
respect  to  the  aged  veteran  who — 

"Shoulders  his  crutch,  and  shows  how  fields  were  won," 

why  should  we  censure  the  aged  statesman  who  recounts  his  great 
exploits  and  narrates  his  hard-earned  victories  ? 

I  apprehend,  however,  that  it  was  egoism  rather  than  egotism  of 
which  his  critics  meant  to  accuse  the  deceased.  But  what  man  ever 
achieved  success  in  a  long  struggle  against  formidable  opposition,  or 
adverse  circumstances,  without  some  confidence  in  his  own  powers? 
And  if  this  confidence,  fed  by  success,  becomes  inordinate,  what  does 
it  prove  save  that  even  the  greatest  intellects  are  not  free  from  imper 
fections  ? 

Mr.  President,  there  is  a  proverb  almost  as  old  as  mortuary  mon 
uments,  that  describes  an  improbable  story  as  being  "false  as  an 
epitaph."  And  so  of  funeral  orations  it  has  often  been  said,  that  the 
quality  by  which  they  are  most  distinguished  is  exaggeration.  Ob 
serving  the  charitable  maxim,  "  nil  mortuis  nisi  bomun"  the  faults  of 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER   OF   CHARLES    SUMNER.  19 

the  dead  are  buried  out  of  sight;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  disregard 
ing  that  other  maxim,  "  nil  mortids  nisi  verum"  he  is  exalted  by  eulogy 
above  the  lot  of  humanity  and  placed  in  the  ranks  of  angels  or  gods. 
This  was  not  the  idea  of  what  a  funeral  discourse  should  be  in  the 
opinion  of  CHARLES  SUMNER.  In  that  most  touching  and  beautiful 
address  delivered  by  him  on  the  occasion  of  the  death  of  Senator 
Davis,  of  Kentucky,  while  paying  the  highest  tribute  to  the  virtues 
of  the  deceased,  and  recognizing  the  moderation  of  judgment  upon 
the  character  of  our  adversaries  that  is  begotten  by  time  and  experi 
ence,  he  yet  stood  fast  by  his  own  well-settled  convictions.  Following 
that  example,  I  speak  over  his  grave  my  belief,  that  he  was  great  in. 
intellect,  profound  in  learning,  sincere  in  his  convictions,  true  in  his 
friendships,  urbane  and  amiable  in  his  intercourse,  and  wholly  unas 
sailable  by  corruption.  All  this  I  can  truly  say,  and  more  than  this 
he  would  not,  if  living,  wish  me  to  say.  He  would  not  ask  me  to 
surrender  my  well-matured  opinions,  or  to  applaud  his  views  or  his 
course  when  they  were  opposed  to  the  deliberate  judgment  of  my 
own  mind. 


ADDRESS  OF  MR.  SPENCER,  OF  ALABAMA. 

Mr.  PRESIDENT,  having  been  honored  with  the  confidence  and 
friendship  of  the  late  distinguished  Senator  from  Massachusetts,  I 
esteem  it  a  high  privilege  to  offer  a  modest  tribute  to  his  memory  and 
worth.  Deferring  to  his  large  experience  in  national  affairs,  and  ap 
preciating  the  extent  of  his  culture  and  learning,  I  have  often,  in  the 
hour  of  need  and  uncertainty,  sought  his  advice,  and  never  in  vain. 
To  his  generous  sympathy  and  wise  counsel  I  attribute  much  that  I 
have  been  enabled  to  accomplish  toward  the  happiness  and  well- 
being  of  a  large  class  of  citizens  of  the  State  of  Alabama,  once  bond 
but  now  free.  In  their  name  and  on  their  behalf,  as  well  as  my  own, 


20  ADDRESS     OF     MR.     SPENCER     ON     THE 

I  lay  the  garland  of  gratitude  upon  the  bier  of  CHARLES  SUMNEK, 
one  of  the  greatest  of  the  many  great  tribunes  of  Massachusetts. 

When  these  bondmen  were  dumb,  and  in  their  behalf  men  were 
silent,  HE  SPOKE  ;  and  they  can  never  cease  to  honor  him  who  found 
voice  for  the  voiceless  and  gave  help  to  the  helpless.  That  voice  was 
never  silenced  in  their  behalf  until  there  fell  upon  it  the  enforced 
silence  of  death;  nor  can  they  ever  forget  that  the  last  dying  utter 
ance  of  their  great  champion  was  a  whispered  plea  to  cherish  their 
cause. 

Now,  when  their  tongues  are  unloosed,  and  all  men  may  speak  for 
them,  in  God's  fit  providence,  his  voice  alone  is  silent.  Yet  how  true 
it  is  that,  "being  dead,  he  speaketh."  Not  because  of  his  scholarship 
do  these  grateful  freedmen  honor  this  great  scholar;  not  because  of 
his  statesmanship  do  they  revere  the  memory  of  this  dead  Senator; 
not  for  his  acquisitions  of  learning,  nor  for  his  pride  of  place,  but 
only  that  he  had  pity  for  their  sorrows,  and  found  it  in  his  heart  to 
plead  ever  for  the  poor  and  for  the  oppressed.  His  career  thus  fur 
nishes  an  illustrious  example  of  the  truth  of  the  proverb,  "  The  heart 
of  the  wise  teacheth  his  mouth,  and  addeth  learning  to  his  lips." 

Called  from  his  post  of  duty  in  the  acme  of  his  usefulness,  he  lived 
to  that  epoch  when  to  advocate  the  cause  of  universal  freedom  left 
no  taint  upon  name  and  fame,  and  when  to  beseech  succor  for  the 
oppressed  and  down-trodden  constituted  no  crime,  inviting  and 
extenuating  violence,  or  palliating  denunciation  and  social  ostracism. 
In  the  very  face  of  contumely  and  disdain  he  calmly,  but  no  less 
determinedly,  waged  his  battle  against  the  oppressor's  wrong,  gather 
ing  strength  from  every  repulse  and  honor  from  every  defeat,  until 
the  victory  was  won ;  a  conquest  in  the  simple  interests  of  peace  and 
human  happiness,  with  no  aggrandizement  other  than  the  enlarge 
ment  of  the  area  of  freedom. 

During  the  period  of  African  slavery,  Mr.  President,  free  speech  in 
the  Senate  existed  only  in  name — a  precept  without  the  practice — the 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  CHARLES  SUMNER.      21 

merest  mockery  of  a  privilege!  The  abrogation  of  slavery  gave  birth 
to  many  blessings,  but  none  greater  or  more  important  to  the 
American  people  than  the  right  to  freely  express  convictions  on 
public  affairs,  and  to  be  permitted  to  maintain  these  opinions  in  good 
faith,  in  accordance  with  the  principles  of  republican  form  of  gov 
ernment.  To  CHARLES  SUMNER,  as  much  as  to  any  other,  are  we 
indebted  for  the  practical  and  unrestricted  exercise  of  the  privilege 
of  free  speech  in  the  Senate  of  the  United  States.  The  day  has 
happily  dawned  when  the  argument  of  violence  finds  no  favor  in 
the  public  sight,  and  when  the  people  recognize  that  through  faith 
and  love,  and  not  by  arms,  can  the  work  of  national  amelioration 
be  accomplished.  It  is  now  the  auspicious  era  of  fide  et  amore — 
no/i  annis,  and  in  this  good  work  is  CHARLES  SUMNER  beaten 
meinorice. 

Other  Senators,  more  familiar  with  his  career,  will  recall  the  inci 
dents  of  his  early  life,  his  college  days,  his  legal  studies,  his  foreign 
travel,  his  friendships  for  the  learned  in  his  own  and  in  other  lands, 
his  companionship  with  the  wise  and  good — all  that  experience  which 
resulted  in  the  rare  culture,  and  which  made  him  at  once  the  peer  of 
the  most  cultivated,  qualities  which  lent  such  a  charm  to  his  associa 
tions  and  fitness  to  his  surroundings. 

It  is  my  purpose  rather  to  speak  of  those  virtues  without  which  all 
these  gifts  and  attainments  would  have  been  worthless  in  comparison. 
The  lesson  of  his  life  testifies  to  the  value  of  "  integrity  of  purpose," 
that  integrity  which  honors  cannot  suborn  nor  threats  terrify,  and 
which  resists  alike  the  blandishments  of  friends  and  the  batteries  of 
foes — mtam  iinpendere  vero. 

It  was  of  little  interest  to  the  poor  hunted  slave  whether  CHARLES 
SUMNER  stood  high  in  scholarship  at  Harvard;  but  it  was  of  mighty 
import  to  all  these  dumb  black  millions  that  the  scholar  should  have 
had  the  moral  firmness  to  stand  before  the  volunteer  militia  of  Bos 
ton,  at  a  civic  Fourth  of  July  celebration,  and  deliver  to  those 


22  ADDRESS     OF     MR.     SPENCER     ON     THE 

listeners  (expectant  of  the  glowing  periods  of  the  orator,  to  set  forth 
the  "pride,  pomp,  and  circumstance  of  glorious  war")  his  weighty 
arguments  against  all  war! 

It  doubtless  seemed  to  the  impatient  politicians,  during  the  weary 
weeks  of  vain  balloting  for  a  successor  to  the  seat  of  Daniel  Webster, 
that  Mr.  SUMNER  jeopardized  a  great  prize  for  a  very  little  and  unim 
portant  matter,  when  he  steadfastly  refused  to  do  the  slightest  action 
which  even  seemed  in  the  least  degree  to  compromise  his  position. 
But  had  he  been  of  yielding  stuff,  of  what  worth  would  he  have  been 
amid  the  storms  and  strifes  of  the  Senate  ?  His  whole  public  life, 
from  the  day  of  that  oration  on  peace,  through  all  the  momentous 
scenes  of  the  twenty-three  years  of  his  senatorial  career — years  so 
crowded  with  events,  years  the  most  important  since  the  adoption 
of  the  Constitution — his  whole  life  is  but  a  commentary  and  a  repeti 
tion  of  that  rare  courage  which  impelled  him  to  differ  from  friends 
for  the  sake  of  truth  and  conscience. 

In  those  early  days  of  bitterness,  in  these  later  days  of  calumny,  no 
voice  ever  breathed  a  word  against  the  spotless  integrity  of  the  man. 
To  those  familiar  with  the  history  of  the  times,  there  can  be  uttered 
no  higher  eulogy ! 

Realizing,  in  the  very  words  of  Mr.  SUMNER,  that  a  "seat  in  the 
Senate  is  a  lofty  pulpit,  with  a  mighty  sounding-board,  and  the  whole 
wide-spread  people  is  the  congregation,"  I  am  deeply  sensible,  Mr. 
President,  of  my  inability  to  properly  eulogize  his  greatness  or  to  fitly 
exalt  his  memory.  But  I  would  fail  in  my  duty  to  my  constituents, 
and  be  untrue  to  the  settled  principles  of  my  life,  as  well  as  recreant 
to  the  deep  affection  and  veneration  which  I  bore  him,  were  I  to 
remain  silent  upon  this  .solemn  occasion. 

Far  be  it  from  me  to  advert  to  error  and  frailty,  and  from  which 
none  are  free;  but,  in  his  own  language,  employed  in  eulogy  of  the 
late  Senator  Fessenden,  I  may  repeat  that  "  the  error  and  frailty 
which  belonged  to  him  often  took  their  color  from  virtue  itself." 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  CHARLES  SUMNER.      23 

He  has  followed  from  this  Chamber,  in  quick  succession  to  the 
grave,  the  column  of  stahvart  champions  of  liberty — Fessenden,  Sew- 
ard,  Chase,  and  Hale — all  of  whom,  through  the  infinite  mercy  of 
Providence,  were  permitted  life  to  reap  the  harvest  of  freedom,  and 
to  behold  our  land  happy  in  the  enjoyment  of  universal  liberty.  His 
motto  was  "Ducit amor patrice"  and  no  nobler  epitaph  can  be  graven 
on  his  tomb! 


ADDRESS  OF    MR.    MORRILL,  OF  VERMONT. 

Mr.  PRESIDENT,  here  our  numbers  are  not  so  large,  nor  our  differ 
ences  of  any  sort  so  great,  that  we  do  not  feel,  when  death  enters  this 
Chamber,  something  of  the  bereavement  of  the  broken  family-circle. 
Associated  here  for  a  prolonged  term  of  years,  often  including  the 
prime  and  ripest  portion  of  our  lives,  statedly  meeting  in  the  work 
shops  of  committees  and  in  daily  debate,  hearing  our  names  repeated 
in  the  frequent  roll-calls,  it  is  not  strange  that  it  should  give  our  hearts 
a  pang  to  part  with  the  humblest  name  when  it  passes  away  forever 
to  the  "starry  court  of  eternity."  But  now  when  we  part  with  a  con 
spicuous  member  of  the  Senate,  conspicuous  by  length  of  service,  by 
eminent  ability,  and  established  renown,  each  one  of  us  must  confess 
to  more  or  less  of  a  personal  loss  as  well  as  to  the  greater  loss  of  the 
Senate  itself.  CHARLES  SUMNER,  under  the  higher  law,  has  responded 
to  the  last  roll-call,  and  here  the  familiar  sound  of  his  voice  is  forever 
silenced.  His  imposing  presence  on  the  crowning  outer  circle  of  the 
Senate  will  no  longer  attract  attention.  Only  the  memory  remains 
to  us  of  one  whose  words  and  bearing,  with  minor  qualifications,  so 
well  comported  with  the  dignity  of  his  office  as  to  have  fairly  earned 
the  title  of  a  model  Senator. 

Mr.  SUMNER  for  four  years  had  been  a  member  of  the  Senate  when 
it  was  my  fortune,  in  1855,  first  to  hold  a  seat  in  the  House  of  Rep 
resentatives.  For  words  spoken  in  debate,  in  1856,  he  was  brutally 


24  ADDRESS     OF     MR.     MORRILL     ON     THE 

assaulted  by  Preston  S.  Brooks,  a  member  of  the  House,  and  it  was 
not  until  after  this  that  my  personal  acquaintance  with  him  began. 
For  some  years  I  was  more  familiar  with  what  was  then  known  as 
his  "vacant  chair"  than  with  the  Senator  to  whom  it  belonged,  who 
was  abroad  ready  to  invoke  heroic  remedies,  if  only  they  led  to  health. 
During  these  years  he  returned  for  a  short  period,  but  bore  little  or 
no  part  in  the  Senate.  Mr.  Brooks  meanwhile  suddenly  died,  as  at 
last,  and  after  intervals  of  painful  suffering,  has,  also  suddenly,  the 
victim  of  his  violence.  It  was  noticeable  in  his  social  intercourse, 
while  others  let  slip  an  occasional  outburst  of  feeling  as  to  his  assail 
ant,  Mr.  SUMNER  never  disclosed  the  least  lingering  personal  ani 
mosity.  History  was  silently  left  to  avenge  itself.  His  misfortune 
appeared  to  be  accepted  as  one  of  the  many  inseparable  wrongs 
resulting  from  the  cruel  system  of  slavery,  with  which  only  he  waged 
enduring  battle,  and  not  as  the  crime  of  an  individual,  with  whom, 
living  or  dead,  he  sought  only  peace. 

The  Senate  of  the  United  States  is  no  ordinary  theater  in  which 
men  sustain  their  parts.  It  is  the  forum  of  States.  If  the  seat  which 
in  1851  Mr.  SUMNER  was  called  to  fill  had  been  previously  occupied 
by  an  undistinguished  person,  his  task  would  have  been  comparatively 
easy,  but  that  seat  had  been  long  held  by  one  the  world  pronounced 
the  foremost  American  Senator,  made  classic  by  one  the  breadth  and 
grandeur  of  whose  services,  whose 'eloquence  and  statesmanship — 
with  that  of  his  compeers — had  placed  the  American  Senate  on  a 
level  with  that  of  the  Roman  Republic  in  the  days  of  its  greatest 
virtue  and  highest  splendor.  He  succeeded,  after  a  brief  interlude, 
the  veteran  "  Defender  of  the  Constitution,"  who  had  stamped  upon 
our  banner  the  ineffaceable  words,  "  Union  and  Liberty,  now  and 
forever,  one  and  inseparable."  To  say  that  he  proved  not  an  unwor 
thy  successor  of  Webster,  however  unlike,  is  to  say  much,  considering 
he  was  but  a  tyro  in  the  politics  of  even  the  Commonwealth  from 
whence  he  came.  It  was  the  fortune  of  CHARLES  SUMNER  to  be 


LIFE   AND    CHARACTER   OF   CHARLES    SUMNER.  25 

placed  in  his  high  station  at  a  period  of  grand  and  rapidly-culmi 
nating  events.  Blessed  with  exalted  natural  gifts,  he  also  had  been 
furnished  with  a  large  share  of  the  erudition  of  the  age,  completed 
by  such  graces  as  foreign  travel  supplies.  Having  already  started  in 
the  field  with  a  small  band  of  early  crusaders  against  slavery,  impelled 
by  a  robust  frame  and  more  robust  will,  he  fearlessly  seized  upon 
every  fit  occasion  in  his  new  position  to  make  that  institution  odious 
and,  if  possible,  to  wound  it  in  some  of  its  most  vulnerable  parts. 
This  was  his  all-absorbing  mission. 

He  received  and  revered  the  Constitution  of  our  country,  as  or 
dained  by  the  same  will  and  power  which  proclaimed  that  great 
Magna  Charta  of  human  freedom,  the  Declaration  of  Independence, 
and  therefore  never  forgot  the  fundamental  idea  of  "equality  before 
the  law,"  nor  that  "  all  men  are  created  equal."  He  brought  no  fixed 
allegiance  to  party-platforms,  and  found  no  withes  in  the  Constitution 
that  restrained  him  from  resisting  any  claims  for  the  protection  of 
slavery;  but  that  instrument  was  everywhere  to  be  interpreted  broadly 
and  beneficently  in  the  interests  of  humanity,  world-wide  and  divinely 
free. 

Bestowing  care  even  upon  trifles,  his  orations  in  the  Senate,  as 
might  be  expected,  were  prepared  as  for  a  grand  occasion,  and,  tow 
ering  in  his  place  like  a  tribune  of  the  people,  the  heavy,  resounding 
tones  of  his  voice  were  wont  to  draw  the  attention  of  willing  listen 
ers  to  words  which'  soon  found  through  the  press  a  far  wider  accept 
ance.  His  arguments  were  methodical,  abundant  in  information, 
stiffened  by  apt  and  pregnant  sentences,  studiously  observant  of  the 
syllogistic  beginning,  middle,  and  end,  and,  though  rarely  what  is 
called  brilliant  or  illumined  by  wit,  were  always  clearly  put  forth, 
with  the  paramount  object  of  spreading  light  and  with  the  convincing 
majesty  of  earnestness. 

Those  among  us  who  may  have  found  it  sometimes  difficult  to  agree 
with  him  never  found  it  difficult  to  respect  his  fairness  of  purpose, 


26  ADDRESS     OF     MR.     MORRILL     ON     THE 

his  unflinching  integrity,  or  his  wealth  of  learning.  In  his  orbit  as 
a  statesman  he  soared  high  from  the  beginning  to  the  end,  and  ever 
sought  with  moral  intrepidity  noble  ends  by  noble  means.  As  to  the 
largest  share  of  legislative  measures,  he  was  apt  to  be  right.  He 
sturdily  and  sorrowfully  resisted  the  banishment  of  coin,  as  an  alien, 
from  the  base  of  a  sound  currency.  Upon  questions  of  popular 
rights  he  was  often  a  leader ;  in  all  steps  of  reform  he  was  never  a 
laggard.  The  doctrines  he  espoused,  if  not  exclusively  his  own,  ap 
peared  to  belong  to  him  by  the  possessory  title  of  constant  use  and 
earnest  adherence.  He  needed  no  admonition  to  "stick."  If  it 
cannot  properly  be  claimed  that  "  his  doctrines  persuaded  one  gen 
eration  and  live  to  govern  the  next,"  it  may  be  claimed  that  his  early 
text  of  "  Freedom,  national;  Slavery,  sectional,"  did  not  wait  until 
the  next  generation  to  be  even  more  than  verified.  Freedom  is  na 
tional  and  slavery  forever  extinct.  In  the  surging  conflicts  in  behalf 
of  universal  liberty  the  deceased  Senator  has  gathered  many  laurels, 
and  if  few  more  remained  to  be  won,  his  brow  was  already  covered. 
He  will  be  numbered  among  those  who  helped  to  change  a  great 
chapter  in  our  history.  By  a  life  of  unstinted  and  unselfish  labor 
he  secured  the  undying  gratitude  of  an  emancipated  race  and  the 
general  approval  of  mankind. 

Mr.  SUMNER  was  ever  surrounded  by  books.  They  were  his  most 
beloved  friends,  and  surrendered  many  of  their  secret  treasures  to  their 
constant  wooer.  New  books  as  well  as  old,  Longfellow  as  well  as 
Plato  and  Milton,  often  robbed  him  of  sleep.  He  was  a  somewhat 
fastidious  lover  of  the  beautiful  in  art,  busily  collecting  such  notable 
objects  as  were  historically  rare,  superb  in  material,  or  cunning  in  work 
manship;  but  neither  this  elegant  refinement  of  taste  nor  the  epicurean 
seclusion  of  his  daily  life  lifted  him  above  willing  labor  and  the  ten- 
derest  sympathy  for  those  who  were  rude,  unlettered,  and  degraded 
by  even  the  darkest-browed  slavery.  To  him  the  "  Greek  Slave"  in 
marble  appeared  transcendently  beautiful;  but  the  chain,  the  ugly 


LIFE    AND    CHARACTER   OF    CHARLES    SUMNER.  27 

system,  that  chafed  the  limbs  and  bound  the  living  slave,  was  an 
intolerable  atrocity,  even  a  manacle  on  the  symbol  of  God. 

Mr.  SUMNER'S  habits  of  industry,  though  the  sands  of  his  fourth 
term  as  a  Senator  were  fast  running  out,  clung  to  him  to  the  very 
last,  and  in  no  three  months  of  his  life  were  they  much  better  dis 
played,  nor  rest  and  pastime  more  habitually  scorned,  than  in  those 
which  brought  his  labors  to  an  end. 

Most  men  have  some  speciality  wherein  they  chiefly  excel,  and 
doubtless  the  great  subject  of  the  natural  rights  of  man  most  deeply 
excited  the  enthusiasm  of  CHARLES  SUMNER;  but  he  brought  valu 
able  contributions  into  the  discussion  of  a  wide  field  of  topics,  politi 
cal  and  historical;  and  upon  international  law,  it  may  not  be  wrong 
to  say,  he  was  possibly  more  profoundly  learned  than  upon  the  sub 
ject  which  most  contributed  to  build,  up  and  support  his  reputation. 
Few  men  have  done  more  work,  and  fewer  still  have  done  it  so  well. 
While  chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Foreign  Relations,  in  all  critical 
emergencies  he  was  a  vigilant  and  powerful  friend  of  peace,  and  as 
such  merits  the  country's  grateful  remembrance.  The  principle  em 
bodied  in  our  late  treaty  with  Great  Britain,  of  the  arbitration  of 
international  differences,  he  eagerly  accepted  as  the  herald  of  peace 
to  future  generations,  in  harmony  with  his  earliest  idea  of  the  "True 
Grandeur  of  Nations,"  and  as  a  hopeful  sign  of  human  progress. 

Public  men  during  life  very  often  receive  the  poorest  kind  of 
thanks  for  their  noblest  efforts.  The  world  at  large  is  not  always 
swift  to  comprehend;  associates  look  on  with  torpid  indifference; 
and  enemies  are  made  glad  by  every  new  field  exposed  to  assault. 
But  when  the  grave  closes  the  scene,  praise  of  the  dead  harms  no 
rival,  and  the  final  verdict  of  history  proclaims  only  truth,  generously, 
perhaps,  but  free  from  detraction  and  all  uncharitableness;  and  then 
public  men  who  have  deserved  well  of  their  country  obtain  that  full 
measure  of  recognition  and  reverence  which  at  last  confers  merited 
rank  in  the  roll  of  the  worthiest  of  mankind. 


28  ADDRESS     OF     MR.    MORRILL   ON   THE 

The  present  age,  however,  always  suffers  at  all  points  by  contrast 
with  the  past,  because  none  but  the  great  among  the  unnumbered 
hosts  turned  to  dust — the  few  screened  and  idolized  products  of 
picked  centuries — have  been  preserved,  while  all  of  the  present  age 
are  visible  and  so  near  that  no  deformities  can  be  hidden.  There  is 
no  sun,  that  has  not  long  ceased  to  shine,  whose  spots  remain  unre- 
vealed. 

Our  deceased  associate,  unsheltered  by  wealth,  by  family,  or  by 
party,  was  exposed  first  and  last  to  much  adverse  criticism,  from 
which,  in  spite  of  much  real  admiration,  impartiality  will  not  even 
now  wholly  release  him.  His  persistency  in  pushing  his  own  meas 
ures  to  the  front,  though  to  tHeir  present  hurt  or  to  the  hurt  of  others, 
often  provoked  rebuke.  His  enemies  ,he  easily  forgave,  but  could 
not  so  easily  bury  the  slender  personal  affronts  received  in  any  wordy 
encounters  from  his  peers.  His  self-confidence,  admirable  enough 
when  he  was  right,  was  no  less  unmistakable  and  glittering  when  he 
happened  to  be  wrong.  To  his  conclusions,  sincerely  reached,  he 
gave  regal  pretensions,  and  for  them  accepted  nothing  less  than 
unconditional  submission.  Unconscious  of  personal  offense,  he  im 
periously,  and  with  the  stride  of  a  colossus,  trampled  down  whatever 
arguments  stood  in  his  way,  not  knowing  who  was  bruised,  and  yet 
was  sometimes  so  sensitive  that  if  his  own  arguments  were  touched 
by  the  gentlest  zephyrs  of  personal  retort  he  felt  they  were  visited  too 
roughly. 

Yet  these  occasional  self-assertions  by  no  means  held  general  sway, 
and  never  at  his  own  house  and  table,  where  the  cordial  greeting  and 
genial  smile,  with  conversation  embroidered  with  both  wisdom  and 
mirth,  exhibited  the  full  and  varied  attractions  of  his  head  and  heart. 

Finally,  deducting  whatever  truth  may  demand — a  stern  deduction 
the  deceased  never  omitted — the  brightness  of  his  fame  will  not  serve 
to  perpetuate  the  memory  of  any  stain  upon  the  absolute  purity  of 
his  private  or  public  character,  and  there  will  still  remain  the  imper- 


I 

LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  CHARLES  SUMNER.      2Q 

ishable  record?  of  a  memorable  career — something  that  the  highest 
ambition  aims  to  grasp,  and  that  heroes  die  to  obtain — or  much  of 
the  real  elements  of  greatness  and  all  the  glory  of  a  historic  name. 

"  I  live  in  the  hope  of  a  better  world,  a  world  with  a  little  less  fric 
tion,-"  are  words  I  have  seen  attributed  to  the  departed  Senator.  Has 
he  not,  with  no  duty  neglected,  reached  that  "better  world?"  And 
who  of  us  does  not  sometimes  pray  for  "a  world  with  a  little  less 
friction?" 


ADDRESS  OF    MR.   PRATT,  OF  INDIANA. 

Mr.  PRESIDENT,  I  too  would  drop  a  tear  over  the  new-made  grave 
of  CHARLES  SUMNER.  Others  who  have  known  him  longer  and  bet 
ter  have  already  set  forth  in  eloquent  phrase  his  wonderful  endow 
ments  of  mind  and  the  moral  graces  of  his  character.  I  do  not  pro 
pose  to  speak  of  these  at  any  length,  nor  yet  of  the  leading  incidents 
of  his  eventful  career;  for  his  history  is  known  of  all.  The  press  has 
already  spoken  with  its  myriad  tongues  to  all  parts  of  this  widely- 
extended  country.  Nor  yet  do  I  care  to  dwell  upon  that  rare  scholar 
ship  which  made  him,  in  international  law,  in  belles-lettres,  and 
statesmanship,  one  of  the  foremost  men  of  the  country  and  the 
age.  All  who  knew  him  can  bear  witness  how  well  the  graces  of  his 
mind  harmonized  with  his  nobility  of  form  and  majesty  of  feature. 
He  was  a  man  of  such  mark  in  his  mere  exterior  as  to  arrest  at  once 
the  attention  of  a  stranger,  and  make  him  a  chief  among  ten 
thousand.  All  these  topics  I  leave  to  other  hands.  But  what  I  do 
want  to  linger  upon  a  few  moments  are  some  traits  in  his  character 
which  distinguished  him  as  a  man  and  legislator,  and  deserve  to  be 
held  up  as  incentives  to  others  who  would  tread  the  paths  of  honor 
like  him  and  win  the  enduring  respect  and  confidence  of  mankind. 


30  ADDRESS     OF     MR.     PRATT     ON     THE 

Mr.  SUMNER  was  a  man  pre-eminently  true  to  his  convictions  of 
right.  It  was  in  this  sign  he  conquered.  He  did  not  stop  to  con 
sider  whether  the  position  he  took  would  bring  favor  or.  reproach. 
He  was  only  anxious  to  be  right ;  to  plant  himself  upon  principles 
that  would  not  change.  Hence  he  did  not  allow  himself  to  look  at 
a  question  through  any  medium  that  distorted  its  true  proportions. 
He  was  an  honest  man  by  nature.  He  hated  deceit,  fraud,  pecula 
tion,  and  corruption  in  all  their  forms.  But  especially  were  all  the 
strong  forces  of  his  moral  nature  set  in  hostility  to  oppression  by  man 
over  man.  Against  the  system  of  human  slavery,  he  waged  ceaseless 
war,  from  early  manhood  up  to  the  period  of  his  death.  Need  I  speak 
of  his  correlative  love  of  truth,  of  freedom,  of  justice,  of  equal  rights, 
in  this  Chamber  that  has  so  often  echoed  his  grand  utterances?  To 
the  establishment  of  this  doctrine  of  equal  rights  among  men  with 
out  distinction  of  color  or  race;  to  the  emancipation  and  elevation  of 
the  four  millions  of  the  African  race  whom  he  found  in  bondage  and 
lived  to  see  freedmen  and  citizens  of  this  Republic,  he  consecrated 
the  many  years  of  his  public  service  with  a  singleness  of  purpose 
that  never  swerved  a  moment,  with  an  unflagging  zeal  and  an  energy 
that  never  tired.  That  was  his  great  work;  and  it  was  a  work  of 
love  and  of  conscience.  He  had  many  colaborers,  and  it  is  no  injus 
tice  to  them  to  say  that  he  had  no  superior  in  the  abilities,  the  ripe 
learning,  the  courage  and  zeal  which  he  brought  to  the  enterprise. 

The  pioneers  in  the  great  movement  against  slavery  were  a  most 
remarkable  body  of  men,  distinguished  equally  by  talents  and  bold 
ness,  by  zeal  and  fortitude.  The  history  of  parties  may  be  searched 
in  vain  for  a  parallel  to  the  anti-slavery  party  in  its  origin  and  prog 
ress,  in  the  short  but  rapid  and  successful  career  it  ran,  until  all  its 
objects  came  to  be  accomplished,  but  by  means  and  instrumentalities 
hidden  from  the  eyes  of  those  who  set  the  ball  in  motion.  Their 
doctrines  were  odious  to  the  last  degree  among  their  countrymen,  and 
neither  the  great  abilities  of  the  leaders,  nor  the  abstract  justice  of 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  CHARLES  SUMNER.     31 

their  cause,  nor  the  unselfishness  of  their  motives  could  shield  them 
from  persecution,  from  odium,  and  contempt.  The  principles  they 
announced  touched  the  conscience  of  a  part  of  their  countrymen  and 
alarmed  the  selfish  fears  of  another  part.  They  excited  the  animosity 
of  all  who  wanted  repose  and  hated  agitation.  The  war  they  waged 
was  against  an  institution  which  was  coeval  almost  with  the  settle 
ment  of  this  continent,  which  was  interwoven  in  the  political  systems 
of  half  the  States,  recognized,  even,  and  protected  in  the  national 
Constitution,  and  which  furnished  the  unpaid  labor  of  three  millions 
of  men,  women,  and  children  to  promote  the  wealth  and  feed  the 
pride  of  less  than  half  a  million  of  masters  and  mistresses.  Never  in 
the  history  of  the  world  did  there  exist  a  combination  of  men  more 
formidable  by  their  common  interest  and  their  common  fears,  by  their 
wealth  and  wide-spread  influence,  than  this  compact  body  of  slave 
holders;  and  it  was  such  an  institution,  venerable  in  years,  deeply 
imbedded  in  social  and  political  systems,  and  above  all  formidable 
in  the  political  grasp  in  which  it  held  the  country  as  in  a  vise,  that 
this  small  body  of  reformers  attacked  in  its  stronghold.  It  was 
David  with  his  sling  going  forth  to  meet  Goliath  with  his  spear  like 
a  weaver's  beam.  This  is  not  the  time  to  do  more  than  touch  upon 
that  great  warfare  in  which  Mr.  SUMNER  bore  so  conspicuous  a 
part.  He  was  most  ably  seconded  by  such  men  as  Gerritt  Smith, 
Lovejoy,  Stevens,  Hale,  Seward,  Chase,  Garrison,  Phillips,  and  Gid- 
dings.  Most  of  that  noble  band  of  pioneers  have  gone  to  their  rest. 
But  what  a  work  for  a  single  generation  to  accomplish  have  they 
left  behind  them! 

When  Mr.  SUMNER'S  conscience  was  aroused  by  the  wrongs  of 
slavery  he  was  pursuing  with  singular  success  a  profession  which 
opened  to  his  ambition  pleasing  vistas  of  distinction  and  ample 
reward.  There  is  something  grand  in  his  renunciation  of  the  advan 
tages  of  his  position;  in  his  breaking  loose  from  friends  and  a  party 
too  timid  to  resist  the  demands  of  slavery,  and  consecrating  himself 


•  32  ADDRESS     OF     MR.     PRATT     ON     THE 

to  the  elevation  of  a  race  of  slaves,  from  whom  he  was  so  far  removed 
by  tastes  and  association  and  sympathy.  I  do  not  follow  him  in  his 
great  work.  It  is  a  part  of  the  history  of  the  country.  To  that  coun 
try  and  its  honor,  to  truth  and  humanity,  and  to  the  cause  of  equal 
rights,  he  devoted  the  remainder  of  his  life.  His  last  thoughts  dwelt 
upon  that  race  for  whose  welfare  he  had  done  and  suffered  so  much, 
and  in  the  advocacy  of  whose  rights  he  had  been  struck  down  by  a 
felon  blow  in  this  Chamber  inspired  by  the  barbarism  of  that  slavery 
against  which  he  had  made  war. 

"  See  to  the  civil-rights  bill;  don't  let  it  fail,"  were  among  his  last 
utterances  to  his  colleague  in  the  other  House,  who  stood  beside  the 
dying  statesman.  To  his  colleague  in  this  body  a  year  ago  he  said, 
"  If  my  works  were  completed  and  my  civil-rights  bill  passed,  no  visitor 
could  enter  the  door  that  would  be  more  welcome  than  death."  That 
bill  was  the  great  work  which  was  to  crown  his  labors.  It  was  the  last 
act  of  legislation  necessary,  in  his  opinion,  to  fill  the  measure  of  the 
colored  man's  rights.  How  often  during  this  session  have  we  heard 
his  voice  in  eloquent  persuasion  lifted  up  in  support  of  this  measure. 
It  was  the  first  bill  offered  upon  the  assembling  of  the  Forty-third 
Congress,  and  stands  to-day  at  the  head  of  our  Calendar  of  bills.  In 
times  past  how  often  have  we  seen  him  employing  every  fair  parlia 
mentary  opportunity  of  urging  this  measure  upon  the  consideration 
of  the  Senate. 

Probably  at  no  period  of  his  life  did  he  more  forcibly  illustrate  his 
perseverance,  his  energy,  his  zeal,  and  eloquence,  than  in  the  many 
efforts  he  made  to  pass  this  bill.  We  know  now  it  was  no  mere  pas 
sion  for  notoriety  that  inspired  these  labors.  Death  tears  the  mask 
from  the  face,  and  the  human  soul  gives  out  true  utterances  as  it 
approaches  the  overmastering  presence  of  Him  who  divines  the 
thoughts  of  men.  We  know  now  that  it  was  in  the  heart  of  CHARLES 
SUMNER,  his  last  and  most  deeply  cherished  wish,  to  lift  up  the  colored 
race  to  the  plane  of  perfect  equality.  And,  sir,  while  that  race  endures 


LIFE   AND    CHARACTER   OF   CHARLES    SUMNER.  33 

on  this  continent  they  will  bind  upon  their  hearts  these  last  words  of 
their  friend,  and  henceforth  for  all  time  Mr.  SUMNER  will  divide  with 
the  martyred  Lincoln  the  love  and  reverence  of  this  warm-hearted 
people. 

But  I  must  not  forget  to  mention  other  traits  of  character  which 
distinguished  our  departed  friend.  Though  not  a  demonstrative  man, 
but  studious  and  somewhat  reserved  in  his  habits,  he  was  courteous 
and  kind  to  all  who  approached  him.  There  was  no  one  who  better 
understood  the  rules  and  courtesies  which  govern  this  body,  or  that 
more  scrupulously  observed  them.  No  one  ever  had  occasion  to  call 
him  to  order.  No  expression  unbecoming  this  place  ever  fell  from 
his  lips  in  debate,  though  no  one  more  prompt  to  assert  his  rights. 

There  is  another  trait  on  which  my  mind  delights  to  dwell:  the 
transparent  purity  and  simplicity  of  his  character.  No  one  has  ever 
ventured  to  assail  the  purity  of  Mr.  SUMNER'S  public  or  private  life. 
Here,  for  more  than  twenty  years,  he  stood  a  conspicuous  figure,  for 
much  of  the  time  odious  for  the  opinions  he  held  upon  the  subject  of 
slavery  and  the  object  of  bitter  persecution;  but  who  ever  challenged 
his  perfect  rectitude  of  motive  in  the  views  he  uttered  and  the  votes 
he  gave?  Here,  during  the  many  years  of  his  public  life,  when  cor 
rupt  schemes  assailed  Congress,  who  ever  linked  Mr.  SUMNER'S  name 
with  ring  or  combination  of  any  kind  which  sought  special  advantage 
from  legislation  ?  No  lobbyist  ever  approached  him  with  doubtful 
propositions.  No  one  could  count  upon  his  vote  unless  the  measure 
was  one  which  commanded  his  approbation  from  his  sense  of  its  just 
ice  and  fitness.  Suspicion  fell  from  time  to  time  upon  many  names, 
often  with  cruel  injustice,  of  self-seeking  aims;  but  it  is  a  most  strik 
ing  proof  of  Mr.  SUMNER'S  lofty  and  transparent  character  that  his 
integrity  was  never  called  in  question  in  his  public  or  private  relations. 
That  he  did  not  love  money  or  seek  to  add  to  his  riches  we  know 
from  the  modest  estate  he  has  left,  and  of  which  he  has  made  such 
judicious  distribution.  That  he  had  a  warm  heart  and  friends  he 


34  ADDRESS     OF     MR.     PRATT     ON     THE 

prized,  we  know  from  the  bequests  he  has  made  and  the  dying  mes 
sages  he  left.  His  last  utterance  wa^,  "Tell  Emerson  how  much  I 
love  and  revere  him."  This  was  the  friend  who  once  said  of  Mr. 
SUMNER,  "  I  think  he  has  the  whitest  soul  I  ever  knew."  That  little 
sentence  tells  the  whole  story  of  Mr.  SUMNER'S  character. 

Mr.  President,  with  this  memorial  occasion  ends  all  of  public  honor 
we  can  render  to  our  departed  associate.  But  no  living  witness  of 
what  transpired  here  on  the  day  his  funeral  obsequies  were  celebrated 
in  this  Chamber  shall  ever  forget  the  sublime  spectacle.  From  early 
morning  all  the  approaches  to  the  Capitol  were  thronged  with  people 
of  all  conditions  of  life  who  sought  to  look  upon  his  face  for  the  last 
time  as  his  body  lay  in  state  in  the  Rotunda.  What  fitter  place  for 
such  respect  ?  Thousands  upon  thousands  passed  his  bier  and  paused 
a  moment  to  gaze  upon  that  classic  face,  majestic  in  the  repose  of 
death.  And  then  who  shall  forget  the  presence  which  greeted  his 
mortal  remains  in  this  Chamber?  Here  were  assembled  the  repre 
sentative  living  forces  which  govern  this  Republic  of  forty  million 
people.  The  national  law-makers  were  here  from  far-off  Oregon  and 
California;  from  the  Rocky  Mountains;  from  the  original  thirteen 
States,  and  from  the  great  basin  of  the  Mississippi  and  its  tributaries. 
Here  were  assembled,  in  their  black  robes,  the  members  of  that  august 
tribunal  which  administers  jurisprudence  over  forty-six  States  and 
Territories.  Here,  too,  came  to  do  honor  to  the  departed  States 
man  the  Chief  Magistrate  of  the  nation  with  his  Cabinet  councilors; 
and  lastly,  ranged  side  by  side,  sat  the  embassadors  of  the  great  powers 
of  the  earth,  the  representatives  of  those  governments  with  which  for 
ten  years  Mr.  SUMNER,  as  chairman  of  the  Committee  on  Foreign 
Relations,  had  so  much  to  do  in  molding  our  national  policy.  All 
these  were  here,  hushed  and  sad,  while  the  voice  of  religion  was  heard 
in  prayer  and  in  sad  mention  of  him  lying  low  in  his  coffin,  all  insen 
sible  to  the  imposing  pageant,  and  about  to  be  committed,  with  solemn 
rite,  earth  to  earth,  dust  to  dust.  Sadly  did  his  associates  think  of 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  CHARLES  SUMNER.      35 

that  form,  now  prostrate  and  lifeless,  as  we  had  so  often  seen  it  tower 
here  in  eloquent  debate.  Sorrowfully  did  we  recall  that  voice  whose 
earnest  tones  should  fill  these  Halls  no  more.  And  O!  how  sadly 
did  we  see  his  lifeless  body  make  its  final  exit  from  this  place  where 
for  twenty-two  years  he  was  a  living  power,  influencing  in  perhaps 
larger  degree  than  any  other  the  opinions  of  men.  He  has  been 
borne  from  city  to  city,  through  the  busy  throngs  of  the  living,  who 
paused  with  uncovered  heads  to  do  honor  to  his  ashes,  until  he  has 
been  committed  at  last  to  final  rest  in  the  soil  of  his  native  State, 
which  he  loved  so  well  and  served  so  faithfully. 

Mr.  President,  I  cannot  close  my  humble  tribute  to  the  memory 
of  Mr.  SUMNER  without  adverting  to  the  extraordinary  testimonies  to 
his  worth  which  have  been  rendered  spontaneously  throughout  the 
whole  country  by  the  press,  from  the  pulpit,  and  through  resolutions 
passed  at  public  meetings.  Since  April,  1865,  when  Mr.  Lincoln  fell 
by  the  hand  of  an  assassin,  the  country  has  witnessed  no  such  mani 
festations.  But  especially  have  these  tributes  been  warm  and  earnest 
on  the  part  of  the  colored  race,  for  whose  good  he  labored  with  such 
disinterested  zeal.  Wherever  the  news  has  penetrated  that  their  great 
friend  and  advocate  had  fallen  in  the  midst  of  his  work  in  their  behalf, 
they  have  assembled  and  given  expression  to  their  grief  and  gratitude. 
I  hold  in  my  hands  a  series  of  resolutions,  just  in  sentiment  and  beau 
tiful  in  expression,  adopted  by  the  colored  men  of  the  city  where  I 
dwell,  and  I  cannot  more  fittingly  close  what  my  heart  prompted  me 
to  say  of  our  lamented  associate  than  by  sending  to  the  Clerk's  desk 
the  preamble  and  resolutions  adopted  by  them,  and  asking  that  they 
may  be  read. 

The  Chief  Clerk  read  the  following  preamble  and  resolutions 
adopted  at  a  meeting  of  colored  citizens  of  Logansport,  Indiana : 

Whereas  it  has  pleased  the  All-wise  and  beneficent  Ruler  of  the 
universe  to  remove  from  our  midst  our  beloved  friend  and  benefactor, 
the  eminent  philanthropist  and  statesman,  Hon.  CHARLES  SUMNER; 


36  ADDRESS     OF     MR.      SARGENT     ON     THE 

and  whereas  we,  as  colored  people,  are  under  a  special  debt  of  lasting 
gratitude  to  him  for  his  unswerving  devotion  to  the  advocacy  of  our 
rights  as  an  oppressed  race:  Therefore, 

Be  it  resolved,  That  the  death  of  CHARLES  SUMNER  comes  to  each 
of  us  with  all  the  bitterness  of  a  personal  bereavement. 

Resolved,  That  we  will  ever  cherish  and  honor  the  name  of 
CHARLES  SUMNER,  and  that  while  we  hand  it  down  to  our  children, 
to  be  held  by  them  in  love  and  veneration,  we  will  also  teach  them 
to  emulate  his  virtues  and  uprightness  of  character. 

Resolved,  That  his  solicitude  for  our  cause,  to  which  he  had  given 
the  labors  of  his  noble  life,  manifested  in  his  dying  hour  in  the  ever- 
memorable  words,  "Take  care  of  the  civil  rights  bill,"  was  the  last 
beautiful  link  in  a  golden  chain  of  good  deeds  which  binds  his 
memory  to  the  hearts  of  the  oppressed  of  all  lands  forever;  and, 
though  he  needs  no  monumental  marble  to  keep  his  memory  fresh 
in  their  hearts,  yet,  as  an  outward  expression  of  their  gratitude,  we 
favor  the  proposition  that  the  colored  people  of  this  country  shall 
erect  a  monument  to  him  at  the  capital  of  the  nation,  respectfully 
suggesting  the  words  quoted  above  as  one  of  the  inscriptions  upon 
said  monument. 

Resolved,  That  as  a  testimonial  of  respect  to  the  memory  of  our 
deceased  friend,  we  will  drape  our  church  in  mourning,  and  the  col 
ored  citizens  of  this  city  are  requested  to  wear  emblems  of  mourning 
for  the  period  of  thirty  days. 


ADDRESS     OF    yWR.     ^ARGENT,     OF    CALIFORNIA. 

Mr.  PRESIDENT,  it  was  my  privilege  a  few  weeks  since,  by  your 
appointment,  to  stand  with  a  few  of  our  brother  Senators  at  the 
grave  of  the  late  Senator,  CHARLES  SUMNER,  while  his  earthly 
remains  were  being  deposited  in  the  soil  of  his  native  State,  to  rest 
while  time  shall  endure  in  the  goodly  company  of  heroes  and  states 
men  who  had  there  preceded  him.  Standing  among  the  tombs  of  the 
many  who  had  trod  the  paths  of  glory  that  lead  but  to  the  grave, 


LIFE    AND    CHARACTER    OF    CHARLES    SUMNER.  37 

were  the  eminent  men  of  the  State,  notably  among  others  the  masters 
of  philosophy  and  poetry,  who  express  its  highest  thought  and  give 
intellectual  power  and  glory  to  the  Athens  of  America.  Only  for 
such  a  man  could  such  an  assembly  have  been  gathered.  Something 
besides  station  evoked  that  homage  of  select  souls.  Among  these 
many  men  of  genius,  drawn  there  not  merely  by  respect  for  the  dead 
statesman,  but  by  the  promptings  of  an  affection  springing  from 
kindred  tastes  and  years  of  intimate  friendship,  it  may  not  be 
improper  to  individualize  a  very  few  of  those  who  witnessed  that 
closing  scene  of  a  conspicuous  career.  There  stood  Ralph  Waldo 
Emerson,  the  genial  philosopher,  who,  in  writing  of  such  friends  as 
the  one  then  mourned,  had  expressed  in  one  of  his  essays  his  appre 
ciation  of  friendship : 

"  I  awoke  this  morning  with  devout  thanksgiving  for  my  friends, 
the  old  and  new.  Shall  I  not  call  God  the  Beautiful,  who  daily 
showeth  himself  so  to  me  in  his  gifts?  I  chide  society,  I  embrace 
solitude;  and  yet  I  am  not  so  ungrateful  as  not  to  see  the  wise,  the 
lovely,  and  the  noble-minded,  as  from  time  to  time  they  pass  my 
gate.  Who  hears  me,  who  understands  me,  becomes  mine,  a  pos 
session  for  all  time.  *  *  *  High  thanks  I  owe  you,  excel 
lent  lovers,  who  carry  out  the  world  for  me  to  new  and  noble  depths, 
and  enlarge  the  meaning  of  all  my  thoughts." 

In  that  silent  and  sorrowful  company  also  stood  Henry  W.  Long 
fellow,  with  silver  locks  and  noble  brow,  the  poet  of  tenderness,  whose 
words  had  fitly  imaged  the  aspirations  of  human  souls  to  penetrate 
the  veil  of  death ;  words  never  more  fitting  than  when  some  strong 
spirit  has  "left  the  warm  precincts  of  the  cheerful  day"  and  passed 
beyond  the  dark  curtain  hiding  from  mortal  gaze  the  "realm  of  mys 
tery  and  night:" 

"As  the  moon  from  some  dark  gate  of  cloud 

Throws  o'er  the  sea  a  floating  bridge  of  light, 
Across  whose  trembling  planks  our  fancies  crowd 
Into  the  realm  of  mystery  and  night, 


38  ADDRESS     OF     MR.     SARGENT     ON     THE 


So  from  the  world  of  spirits  there  descends 

A  bridge  of  light,  connecting  it  with  this, 
O'er  whose  unsteady  floor,  that  sways  and  bends, 

Wander  our  thoughts  above  the  dark  abyss." 

And  there  stood  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes,  the  rich  and  clear  in 
thought,  whose  muse  is  soon  to  celebrate  his  dead  friend  in  other 
memorial  services.  Will  he  find  more  apt  thought  or  expression  than 
that  with  which  years  ago  he  testified  his  homage  to  the  memory  of 
a  brother  poet  ? 

"  Behold — not  him  we  knew ! 

This  was  the  prison  which  his  soul  looked  through, 
Tender,  and  brave,  and  true. 

"His  voice  no  more  is  heard; 
And  his  dead  name — that  dear  familiar  word — 
Lies  on  our  lips  unstirred. 

"  Here  let  the  body  rest, 

Where  the  calm  shadows  that  his  soul  loved  best 
May  glide  above  his  breast. 

"Smooth  the  uncurtained  bed; 
And  if  some  natural  tears  are  softly  shed, 
It  is  not  for  the  dead. 

"Here  let  him  sleeping  lie, 

Till  heaven's  bright  watchers  slumber  in  the  sky, 
And  Death  himself  shall  die." 

There  stood  John  G.  Whittier,  the  poet  of  freedom,  clamm  ct  vcne- 
rabile  nomen,  sad  witness  of  the  interment  of  the  MAN  for  whom  his 
exigent  muse  had  called  five  years  before  the  first  election  of  CHARLES 
SUMNER  to  the  Senate  : 

"Where's  the  MAN  for  Massachusetts? 

Where's  the  voice  to  speak  her  free  ? 
Where's  the  hand  to  light  up  bonfires 

From  the  mountains  to  the  sea? 
Beats  her  pilgrim  pulse  no  longer  ? 

Sits  she  dumb  in  her  despair  ? 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  CHARLES  SUMNER.      39 

Has  she  none  to  break  the  silence  ? 

Has  she  none  to  do  or  dare  ? 
O,  my  God  !   for  one  right  worthy 

To  lift  up  her  rusted  shield, 
And  to  plant  again  the  pine-tree 

In  her  banner's  tattered  field !  " 

I  could  not  doubt  that  the  grand  old  poet  had  seen  the  realiza 
tion  of  his  ideal  in  the  unflinching  champion,  now  low  in  death, 
who  had  borne  a  part  so  generous  and  courageous  in  the  strife  for 
freedom. 

It  has  been  assumed  that  CHARLES  SUMNER  was  an  austere  man, 
absorbed  in  his  self-consciousness  and  in  his  daily  labors,  indifferent 
to  ordinary  emotions.  I  refer  to  the  life-long  friendship  that  knit 
him  to  men  like  these  to  show  the  real  warmth  of  his  nature;  his 
attractive  and  receptive  inner  life. 

I  recur  again  to  that  scene,  impressive  as  it  was,  as  the  uncovered 
multitudes  silently  looked  upon  the  casket  that  enshrined  the  dead 
Senator,  and  fitting  as  it  was  that  the  State  and  nation  should  pause 
while  the  sad  rites  consigned  to  earth  that  noble  form  which  had  so 
long  moved  with  high  power  and  influence  in  human  affairs,  to  note 
the  lesson  there  impressed,  that  Death  is  the  universal  conqueror,  and 
the  lives  of  the  greatest  are  but  a  point  on  the  dial  of  time.  To  very 
few  of  the  restless,  ambitious,  striving  sons  of  humanity  is  immortality 
of  fame  attainable.  The  advancing  shadows  of  the  past  leave  uncov 
ered  few  forms  of  men  who  have  occupied  the  world's  arena.  The 
cloud  approaches  and  swallows  up  successive  generations ;  obscures 
into  common  blankness  names  and  histories  that  were  fondly  thought 
imperishable.  Only  when  great  opportunities  are  furnished  to  great 
talents  can  exception  be  hoped,  or  is  ever  realized.  The  efforts  of  men 
to  accomplish  the  birth  of  some  great  state,  filling  broad  pages  in  the 
world's  annals ;  an  empire  over  the  intellect  or  imagination  of  man 
kind  attained  by  the  rare  genius  that  dates  its  infrequent  efforts  with 
intervals  of  a  score  of  generations ;  the  discovery  or  application  of 


40  ADDRESS     OF     MR.     SARGENT     ON     THE 

grand  truths  for  the  amelioration  of  human  conditions — these  may 
give  immortality  to  the  memory  of  man,  and  leave  his  name  a  house 
hold  word  even  with  the  indifferent  future. 

CHARLES  SUMNER'S  fortune  did  not  cast  him  into  an  era  when  a  great 
state  struggled  into  being.  He  had  not  that  impulsive,  consuming 
genius  that  casts  a  glare  over  the  ages.  But  he  lived  in  an  age  when 
evils  that  were  scarcely  noticed,  from  their  apparent  insignificance,  at 
the  origin  of  the  Republic  had  grown  to  vast  proportions;  had  be 
come  incompatible  either  with  national  safety  or  human  rights,  and 
gave  him  a  field  of  labor  in  which  he  became  illustrious.  Earnestly 
sympathizing  with  him  in  that  work,  concurring  with  him  year  by 
year  in  the  blows  that  he  struck  at  slavery,  I  speak  with  full  heart  in 
tribute  to  his  courage,  his  manliness,  his  singleness  of  purpose,  his 
high  achievements.  He  boldly  announced  and  persistently  applied 
eternal  truths  that  brought  to  the  test  the  growing  wrongs  which 
were  destroying  the  meaning  of  our  institutions  and  giving  point  to 
the  assertion  that  the  declaration  of  the  fathers  was  a  display  of  glit 
tering  generalities.  The  name  he  earned  by  these  labors  of  Hercules, 
Massachusetts  cannot  afford  to  let  die.  The  enfranchised  race  must 
hallow  it  forever.  But  it  belongs  to  the  world  and  all  mankind. 

I  speak  of  his  courage  and  manliness.  Picture  that  almost  solitary 
man  as  he  stood  here  twenty  years  ago,  uttering  what  his  associates 
deemed  not  merely  heresies,  but  blasphemies;  the  suggestions  not 
merely  of  eccentricity,  but  of  stark  madness  or  fatal  mischief.  The 
ark  he  shook  with  unsparing  hand  was  to  them  most  consecrate.  Here 
there  was  political  and  social  ostracism — the  discountenance  of  his 
fellows,  so  hard  to  bear  in  such  a  body  as  this;  in  the  country  execra 
tion  and  contempt;  at  home,  even,  doubtful  and  hesitating  support. 
Martin  Luther  would  go  to  Worms  if  there  were  as  many  devils  as 
tiles  on  the  roofs.  CHARLES  SUMNER  would  go  where  his  convictions 
led,  through  obloquy,  hate,  unpopularity,  and  deadly  assault.  Let  no 
man  who  challenges  the  wisdom  or  justice  of  his  course  deny  his  for- 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  CHARLES  SUMNER.      41 

titude  and  courage.  But  for  the  work  that  Mr.  SUMNER  performed 
there  were  necessary  not  only  fearlessness  and  fortitude,  but  a  cool, 
clear  judgment,  untiring  industry,  and  perfect  integrity.  Suspicion 
of  sordid  motives  would  have  destroyed  his  influence.  These  neces 
sary  qualities  Mr.  SUMNER  possessed  in  the  highest  degree.  His 
devotion  to  the  one  great  idea  of  his  life,  the  abolition  of  slavery  and 
the  entire  political  equality  of  all  men,  was  absorbing  and  unremitted. 
If  in  the  earlier  years  of  his  senatorial  life  to  most  of  his  associates 
here  his  utterances  against  slavery  seemed  sacrilegious  or  insane,  long 
before  his  death  advocacy  of  slavery  in  this  Chamber  would  have 
seemed  to  all  his  associates  as  insane  or  a  pleasantry.  Less  than 
twenty  years  worked  this  great  revolution;  and  in  this  Hall  he  was 
unquestionably  the  chief  inspiring  cause  and  guiding  spirit.  The 
careful  orations  which  he  elaborated  and  here  pronounced,  exhibiting 
in  remorseless  nakedness  the  repulsive  body  of  slavery,  aroused  the 
attention  of  the  North,  introduced  into  political  discussion  a  moral 
element  almost  as  potent  as  religious  enthusiasm,  and  changed  the 
issues  widely  from  the  commercial  controversies  that  before  that  time 
had  divided  parties.  It  would  be  assuming  too  much  to  say  that 
Mr.  SUMNER  was  the  sole  cause  of  the  revolution  that  was  wrought, 
mighty  as  his  influence  was.  There  were  other  able  laborers  in  the 
Senate  and  in  the  country,  increasing  in  numbers  as  events  progressed. 
Slavery  gave  food  for  excitement  by  its  measures  of  resistance,  which 
were  often  carried  to  aggression,  and  by  new  demands;  and  it  took 
the  final  stand  in  opposition  to  the  Government,  without  which  all 
the  eloquence  of  CHARLES  SUMNER  and  his  associates  and  all  the 
aroused  spirit  of  the  North  would  have  left  it  intact  in  its  strongholds. 
The  lurid  flames  of  civil  war  let  in  a  more  intense  light  upon  this 
great  stage,  and  fixed  the  attention  of  mankind  upon  the  actors  who 
played  a  part  unequaled  in  the  world's  drama.  Among  these  Mr. 
SUMNER  was  not  excelled  for  sagacity  or  patriotism.  I  am  disposed 
now  to  concede  that  the  war  was  a  logical  result  of  the  teachings  of 


42  ADDRESS     OF     MR.     SARGENT     ON     THE 

Mr.  SUMNER  and  his  compeers;  though  only  peaceful  revolution,  the 
force  of  persuasion  only,  was  intended  by  them.  They  combated  a 
power  of  unknown  force  and  proportions;  of  unascertained  sensitive 
ness  and  vigor.  They  boldly  thrust  their  torches  into  a  magazine. 
They  zealously  promoted  ends  where  the  resistance  arose  from  both 
passion  and  interest,  and  the  collision  was  unexpectedly  a  convulsion 
where  the  frame- work  of  the  Government  trembled  on  its  foundations. 
They  believed  that  to  circumscribe  slavery  within  existing  boundaries 
was  to  put  it  in  the  course  of  ultimate  extinction.  But  its  extinction, 
peaceful  or  otherwise,  was  not  desired,  would  not  be  tolerated,  by  its 
ultra  friends;  and  hence  when  a  party  triumphed  with  CHARLES 
SUMNER'S  dominant  idea,  the  friends  of  the  twin  relic  took  the  fatal 
step  of  secession  long  contemplated  as  their  dernier  rcssort. 

Mr.  SUMNER  met  this  crisis  with  statesman-like  decision.  In  those 
days,  as  a  member  of  the  other  House  of  Congress,  I  had  often  oppor 
tunity  to  listen  to  his  utterances  on  the  floor  of  the  Senate.  No  man 
ever  heard  from  his  lips  counsels  for  submission  or  unworthy  compli 
ance.  Rather  was  he  stern  and  aggressive,  as  befitted  the  times.  He 
was  among  the  first  to  proclaim  that  the  war  for  slavery  could  only 
be  put  down  by  the  annihilation  of  slavery.  Where  others  of  his 
party  timidly  followed  or  resisted,  he  boldly  led.  He  was  the  em 
bodiment  at  once  of  the  convictions  and  courage  of  his  noble  State. 
In  the  prime  of  manhood  and  of  his  intellectual  powers,  hardened  in 
grain  and  nerve  by  the  long  exercise  of  his  strength  in  senatorial  con 
flicts,  his  decisive  voice  gave  boldness  and  energy  to  the  counsels  of 
the  American  Senate,  where  only  boldness  and  energy  could  cope 
with  the  appalling  difficulties  that  assailed  the  country.  To  Mr. 
SUMNER  largely,  to  men  of  his  bold  and  sagacious  spirit  wholly,  the 
nation  owes  it  that  it  is  now  not  only  one,  but  free,  from  the  Canadas 
to  the  Gulf. 

Francis  Lieber,  in  his  Political  Ethics,  says :  "  The  dread  of  unpop 
ularity  has  ruined  many  statesmen,  led  authors  to  abjure  the  truth,  and 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  CHARLES  SUMNER. 


43 


seduced  citizens  to  crooked  paths."  With  CHARLES  SUMNER  no  dread 
of  unpopularity  ever  operated  to  deflect  him  from  his  chosen  path  of 
duty.  He  might  err,  he  did  sometimes  err,  in  choosing  that  path; 
but  he  pursued  it  sturdily,  without  selfish  fear  of  consequences.  Pie 
was  sometimes  harsh  in  his  judgment  of  the  motives  of  others;  but 
his  own  were  transparent  and  frankly  avowed.  He  was  tenacious  of 
his  opinions  in  good  or  evil  report.  His  reliance  upon  his  own  re 
sources  was  unwavering;  his  confidence  in  his  own  convictions  was 
supreme.  He  expected  rather  than  courted  the  concurrence  of  the 
people.  In  a  remarkable  passage  in  the  Memorial  de  Sainte  Helcne, 
Napoleon  declared,  "Thus  we  ought  to  serve  the  people  worthily,  and 
not  occupy  ourselves  with  pleasing  them.  The  best  way  of  gaining 
them  is  by  doing  them  good."  This  teaching,  however  strange  in  the 
mouth  of  the  august  author,  seems  to  embody  the  philosophy  of  Mr. 
SUMNER'S  political  life.  Yet  he  was  gratified  by  the  love  of  the  peo 
ple  of  Massachusetts,  and  proud  of  their  confidence.  On  the  last 
day  that  he  ever  visited  the  Senate,  when  the  resolutions  had  been 
read  that  testified  that  the  people  of  his  State  by  their  representatives 
had  rescinded  the  only  censure  of  him  that  they  had  ever  uttered 
during  his  long  career  of  service,  he  feelingly  expressed  to  me  his 
appreciation  of  that  great  act  of  justice,  and  spoke  warmly  of  the 
kindness  that  had  cheered  him  during  his  last  visit  to  his  State.  Yet 
it  is  said  that  to  no  man  did  he  ever  complain  of  that  censure,  and  by 
no  act  or  word  ever  sought  its  reversal.  So  he  had  none  of  the  arts 
of  the  politician;  had  no  party  within  his  party;  no  leaders  of  cliques 
or  factions  at  his  beck;  and  left  wholly  to  the  people  the  care  of  his 
political  fortune. 

It  is  meet  that  to  the  memory  of  such  a  man — scholar,  statesman, 
and  patriot — high  honors  be  paid.  He  was  himself  generous  of 
eulogy  to  departed  worth.  I  have  sought  to  add  but  a  leaf  to  the 
garland  that  decorates  his  tomb. 


44  ADDRESS     OF     MR.     SHERMAN     ON     THE 


ADDRESS  OF    MR.    SHERMAN,  OF    OHIO. 

Mr.  PRESIDENT:  When  the  Senate  met  on  the  nth  day  of  March 
last,  and  we  were  informed  that  CHARLES  SUMNER  was  dying,  the 
intelligence  came  with  such  suddenness  and  excited  such  sorrow  .and 
sympathy  that  no  one  of  us  was  inclined  to  the  discharge  of  his  usual 
official  duties.  Mr.  SUMNER  was  with  us  the  day  before  in  apparent 
good  health,  and  witnessed  the  formal  withdrawal  by  the  general 
assembly  of  Massachusetts  of  the  only  criticism  ever  made  by  that 
Commonwealth  of  any  act  of  his  during  his  long-continued  service 
of  twenty-three  years  as  a  member  of  this  body.  We  saw  no  indica 
tion  of  disease,  and  yet  within  twenty-four  hours  he  was  dead.  So 
striking  an  example  of  the  uncertain  tenure  of  human  life  was  a 
warning  to  us  all,  made  more  impressive  by  the  exalted  position  held 
by  Mr.  SUMNER. 

At  no  previous  period  of  his  life  would  his  death  have  caused  such 
general  sorrow.  The  long  strife  he  conducted  against  slavery  aroused 
against  him  bitter  animosity  in  one  portion  of  our  country,  but  this 
was  so  mellowed  by  time  and  events  that  his  old  enemies  acknowl 
edged  the  purity  of  his  motives  and  the  lofty  purpose  of  his  warfare. 
He  had  unmistakable  evidence  of  the  continued  confidence  and  sup 
port  of  his  constituents,  and  of  the  love  and  veneration  of  five  million 
freedmen. 

The  heat  of  recent  contests  in  this  body,  unavoidable  where 
debate  is  free,  and  where  honest  opinions  boldly  expressed  necessarily 
produce  some  strife  and  personal  feeling — this  was  passing  away,  and 
CHARLES  SUMNER  was,  by  the  judgment  of  his  associates  here,  by  the 
love  and  confidence  of  his  constituents,  by  the  general  voice  of  the 
people,  the  foremost  man  in  the  civil  service  of  the  United  States. 
This  eminence  is  assigned  him  for  unblemished  honor,  for  high  intel 
lectual  capacity,  improved  by  careful  study  and  long  experience,  and 
for  public  services  rendered  here  with  unwavering  fidelity  and 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  CHARLES  SUMNER.      45 

industry,  with  conscientious  consistency,  contributing  in  a  large 
degree  to  the  liberty  of  millions  of  slaves,  and  to  the  advancement 
of  the  power,  position,  and  prosperity  of  the  whole  country. 

We  ought  not  to  exalt  the  dead  with  false  eulogy;  but  I  feel,  after 
long  association  with  Mr.  SUMNER  in  the  public  service,  continued 
since  December,  1855,  sometimes  disagreeing  with  him  and  conscious 
of  his  imperfections,  that  I  would  not  do  justice  to  his  memory  did  I 
not  place  his  name  and  fame  above  that  of  all  in  civil  life  who  sur 
vive  him.  I  do  not  compare  him  with  those  whose  good  fortune  it 
has  been  to  have  rendered  important  military  service,  for  such  a 
comparison  is  impossible.  We  may  contrast  the  services  of  the 
statesman  and  the  soldier,  but  we  cannot  compare  them.  The 
mental  and  physical  elements  required  for  success  are  widely  dif 
ferent.  In  all  periods  of  history  the  soldier  has  won  the  highest 
rewards ;  the  statesman  must  often  content  himself  with  deserving 
them. 

This  is  not  the  time  or  the  occasion  to  analyze  events  or  to  parcel 
out  the  good  that  has  been  done  or  the  evil  that  has  been  avoided; 
but  I  can  safely  say  that  on  all  the  vital  issues  that  have  arisen  since 
Mr.  SUMNER  entered  the  Senate  he  has  been  a  prominent,  conspicu 
ous,  and  influential  advocate  of  the  opinions  and  principles  represented 
by  the  republican  party,  which  have  either  been  ingrafted  in  the 
Constitution  of  the  United  States  or  have  controlled  the  policy  of 
the  Government  since  1861.  His  differences  with  political  friends 
have  been  on  collateral  questions,  but  on  vital  questions  he  has 
always  been  not  only  a  representative,  but  a  leader.  His  part  on 
the  leading  measures  of  the  war  and  on  those  that  grow  out  of  the 
war  is  so  conspicuous  that  their  history  could  not  be  written  without 
his  name  appearing  in  the  forefront.  The  true  criticism  of  his 
course  is,  that  he  has  often  been  so  eager  in  the  advance  that  he  did 
not  sufficiently  look  to  practical  measures  to  secure  the  progress 
already  made. 


46  ADDRESS     OF     MR.     SHERMAN     ON     THE 

If  I  am  correct  in  the  position  I  assign  to  Mr.  SUMNER,  we  may 
well  pause  a  moment  to  notice  the  personal  advantages  or  qualities 
that  enabled  him  to  attain  this  distinction. 

And  first  and  chief  of  all  I  would  place  the  advantage  he  derived 
from  a  good  education.  He  was  eminently  an  educated  man,  not 
only  in  the  perfect  mastery  of  college  lessons,  but  in  the  broader  field 
of  classical  and  English  literature,  of  international  and  civil  law,  and 
in  the  customs  and  habits  of  society.  With  this  advantage,  he  had 
an  armory  of  weapons  and  a  capacity  for  acquiring  knowledge  from 
every  source  and  of  making  it  useful  in  every  emergency. 

Again,  he  was  a  man  of  fixed  convictions,  with  a  steady  purpose 
always  in  view.  This  is  an  indispensable  quality  for  success.  The 
central  idea  of  his  political  life  was  hostility  to  slavery.  This  appears 
in  his  earliest  writings  as  strongly  as  when  afterward  it  became  mixed 
with  personal  strife.  His  hatred  of  slavery  was  fierce,  intense,  mor 
bid — evinced  by  such  language  of  bitterness  and  denunciation  that 
no  wonder  the  holders  of  slaves  construed  his  invectives  against  the 
system  as  personal  insults  demanding  resentment.  Mr.  SUMNER  did 
not  so  regard  them.  His  object  was  liberty  to  the  slave,  and  not 
punishment  to  the  master.  His  later  life  proves  that  when  he  could 
secure  the  one  he  freely  gave  amnesty  to  the  other.  Washington  did 
not  pursue  his  object  to  obtain  liberty  and  independence  for  his  coun 
try  with  more  unwavering  faith  and  effort  than  SUMNER  did  for  lib 
erty  and  equal  rights  for  the  slave.  This  quality  in  Mr.  SUMNER 
always  relieved  him  from  inconsistency.  While  he  was  not  always 
satisfied  to  secure  what  he  had  previously  demanded,  he  was  always 
advancing  in  the  same  direction  and  not  in  an  opposite  one.  No 
man's  actions  could  be  more  consistent  with  the  objects  he  always 
kept  in  view. 

Mr.  SUMNER  was  aggressive;  he  could  brook  no  opposition.  He 
was  always  for  a  clean  victory  or  a  clean  defeat.  He  would  not  yield 
even  on  minor  points,  and  would  often  fight  for  a  phrase  when  he 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  CHARLES  SUMNER.      47 

endangered  a  principle.  He  would  sometimes  turn  his  warfare  upon 
his  best  friends  when  they  did  not  keep  exactly  abreast  with  him. 
This  feature  of  his  character  lay  at  the  foundation  of  many  of  his 
controversies  with  his  associates,  and  was  his  weakest  point.  With 
the  great  multiplicity  of  minds  that  must  contribute  to  a  common 
purpose  in  this  arena  of  debate,  there  must  be  yieldings  of  minor 
things  to  accomplish  great  things. 

Mr.  SUMNER  was  industrious  to  a  remarkable  degree.  His  seat 
was  rarely  vacant.  He  was  prompt  and  faithful  in  his  attendance  on 
committees  of  which  he  was  a  member.  Genius  can  accomplish 
nothing  without  industry.  Education  cannot  be  acquired  without  it. 
Success  in  public  life  more  frequently  depends  upon  industry  than 
upon  natural  ability.  We  can  have  no  eight-hour  law  or  ten-hour 
law  here.  Mr.  SUMNER  was  always  busy,  and  even  in  social  life 
sought  for  or  conveyed  information.  The  eloquent  speeches  that 
will  preserve  his  name  are  none  the  less  valuable  because  they  have 
been  distilled  by  the  midnight  lamp. 

Mr.  SUMNER  was  honest  in  the  broadest  meaning  of  that  good  old 
Roman  word.  He  was  upright,  free  from  tricks  and  fraud.  No  one 
could  suspect  the  purity  of  his  motives,  or  seek  by  improper  means 
to  influence  his  conduct.  He  might  be  misled  by  prejudice,  or  party 
bias,  or  local  interests,  but  never  by  personal  interest  or  hope  of  it. 
He  was  not  a  politician  in  the  sense  of  the  word  as  it  is  now  used — a 
man  of  artifice  or  contrivance.  He  was  remarkably  free  from  all 
artifice.  He  did  not  even  use  the  artifice  of  silence,  But  he  was  a 
politician  in  the  true  and  natural  sense.  He  was  profoundly  versed 
in  the  science  of  government.  It  is  a  common  error  that  he  confined 
his  attention  to  the  slavery  question.  Far  from  it.  No  one  in  this 
Senate  was  so  familiar  as  he  with  all  the  laws  and  usages  that  gov 
ern  our  intercourse  with  foreign  nations.  He  was  deeply  interested 
in  questions  affecting  the  internal  development  of  the  country,  and 
of  late  years  has  carefully  studied  all  financial  questions,  and  has 


48  ADDRESS     OF     MR.     WADLEIGH     ON     THE 

contributed  to  their  solution.  Next  to  his  dying  wish  for  the  passage 
of  the  civil-rights  bill  was  his  desire  that  the  promise  of  the  United 
States  should  no  longer  be  measured  by  a  depreciation  of  10  to  14 
per  cent. 

Such  is  the  estimate,  briefly  stated,  that  I  have  conceived  of  Mr. 
SUMNER.  He  sleeps  upon  Mount  Auburn,  and  no  word  of  ours  can 
give  him  care  or  grief.  He  awaits  the  mysteries  of  the  future,  and 
not  long  hence  we  must  in  our  turn  join  him.  How  changed  this 
scene  since  a  few  years  past  I  entered  it!  More  than  one-half  I  met 
here  are  dead,  and  only  three  remain  who  were  then  members  of  the 
Senate.  CHARLES  SUMNER  was  the  last  of  the  funeral  train.  Who 
next? 

May  we  be  so  guided  here  that  when  our  time  comes  our  associates 
may  be  able  truly  to  say  of  us  something  of  the  good  that  is  this  day 
said  of  CHARLES  SUMNER. 


ADDRESS  OF    M.R.   WADLEIGH,  OF  J^EW  J^AMPSHIRE. 

Mr.  PRESIDENT  :  Representing  in  part  upon  this  floor  a  State  con 
tiguous  to  Massachusetts  and  a  people  closely  allied  to  hers  by 
many  ties,  I  cannot  refrain  from  briefly  expressing  upon  this  occasion 
the  profound  sorrow  that  bowed  their  hearts  when  they  heard  that 
CHARLES  SUMNER  was  no  more. 

In  common  with  the  people  of  the  whole  country,  they  recognized 
his  eminent  public  services,  and,  even  when  disagreeing  with  him, 
never  lost  their  faith  in  his  honesty  of  purpose  and  unfaltering  devo 
tion  to  the  cause  to  which  his  life  was  given.  But  New  Hampshire 
has  other  reasons  peculiar  to  herself  for  cherishing  his  memory. 

Seven  years  before  he  came  here  to  occupy  the  seat  of  Daniel 
Webster,  John  P.  Hale  appealed  from  the  decision  of  his  party  to  the 
voters  of  New  Hampshire  upon  the  question  of  slavery-extension. 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER   OF   CHARLES    SUMNER.  49 

Almost  single-handed  and  alone,  against  a  party  unequaled  in  disci 
pline  and  ignorant  of  defeat,  among  a  people  nearly  as  steadfast  and 
unchanging  as  their  granite  hills,  he  won  one  of  the  greatest  victories 
ever  recorded  in  our  political  annals.  Kindling  by  his  eloquence  the 
love  of  liberty  and  hatred  of  oppression  that  lie  at  the  core  of  hu 
manity,  he  was  borne  into  this  Senate  upon  a  popular  torrent  which 
burst  through  the  crust  of  party  like  lava  from  the  burning  heart  of 
a  mountain.  Here  for  four  years  he  stood,  the  isolated  and  ostracised 
representative  of  a  principle  stronger  than  all  parties  and  destined  to 
triumph  over  them  all. 

In  1851,  Massachusetts,  as  if  to  repay  the  debt  she  owed  for  the 
men  who  marched  from  the  Granite  State  to  die  at  Bunker  Hill, 
placed  CHARLES  SUMNER  at  the  side  of  John  P.  Hale.  It  was  the 
re-enforcement  of  a  forlorn  hope,  and  revived  the  drooping  spirits 
of  the  opponents  of  slavery. 

What  followed  is  known  to  all  and  will  never  be  forgotten.  Linked 
to  the  emancipation  of  four  million  slaves,  the  memory  of  such  men 
is  as  imperishable  as  the  stars. 

And  after  this  marble  pile  shall  have  crumbled  into  dust  and  every 
existing  political  organization  shall  have  been  destroyed  by  all-de 
vouring  Time,  SUMNER'S  incorruptible  honesty  and  steadfast  devo 
tion  to  the  cause  of  human  freedom  will  be  gratefully  remembered, 
for  these  make  his  one  of  the  names 

"On  Fame's  eternal  bead-roll  worthy  to  be  filed." 


ADDRESS    OF    yVS.R.    ANTHONY,    OF    ^.HODE    JsLAND. 

Mr.  PRESIDENT  :  I  can  add  nothing  of  narration  or  of  eulogy  to 
what  has  been  said,  and  so  well  said.  Mr.  SUMNER'S  life,  his  char 
acter,  and  his  services  have  been  fittingly  presented,  and  on  both 
sides  of  the  Chamber.  The  generous  voices  of  political  opponents 


50         ADDRESS  OF  MR.  ANTHONY  ON  THE 

have  followed  the  affectionate  praises  of  devoted  friends,  and  nothing 
remains  but  to  close  this  sad  and  august  observance.  Yet  something 
forbids  my  entire  silence,  and  impels  me  to  interpose  a  few  sentences, 
before  the  subject  passes  from  the  consideration  of  the  Senate. 

My  acquaintance  with  Mr.  SUMNER  commenced  previous  to  my 
entrance  into  this  body,  where  it  ripened  into  a  friendship  which  will 
always  remain  among  the  most  agreeable  recollections  of  my  public 
life.  I  remained  associated  with  him  until  every  other  seat  in  the 
Chamber,  except  one,  had  changed  its  occupant,  and  eight  new  ones 
had  been  added.  Some  left  us  in  the  ordinary  chances  and  changes 
of  political  fortunes;  some  were  transferred  to  other  departments  of 
the  public  service;  and  of  these  some  have  returned  again  to  the 
Senate;  some,  as  Douglas,  and  Baker,  and  Collamer,  and  Foot,  and 
Fessenden,  fell,  like  SUMNER,  at  their  posts,  and  like  him  were  borne 
to  their  final  repose  with  all  the  demonstrations  of  public  gratitude, 
of  official  respect,  and  of  popular  affection  with  which  a  generous 
constituency  decorates  the  memory  of  those  whose  lives  have  been 
spent  in  its  service  and  who  have  worthily  worn  its  honors. 

But  Mr.  SUMNER'S  constituency  was  the  Republic,  wide  as  its  far 
thest  boundary  and  permeating  its  utmost  limits;  for  he  was  conspic 
uously  the  representative  of  a  principle  which,  although  seminal  in 
the  organization  of  the  Government,  was  slow  of  growth  and  fruc 
tified  largely  under  his  care.  When  the  intelligence  of  his  death  fol 
lowed  so  close  upon  the  first  intimation  of  his  danger,  it  fell  with  an 
equal  shock  upon  all  classes  of  society,  upon  "  all  sorts  and  conditions 
of  men;"  it  invaded  with  equal  sorrow  the  abodes  of  luxury  and  the 
cottages  of  the  poor — 

paupcrum  tabernasl 

Regumque  turrcs. 

The  scholar  closed  his  book  and  the  laborer  leaned  upon  his  spade. 
The  highest  in  the  land  mourned  their  peer,  the  lowliest  lamented 
their  friend.  How  well  his  life  had  earned  this  universal  testimony 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  CHARLES  SUMNER.      51 

of  respect,  how  naturally  the  broad  sympathy  which  he  had  mani 
fested  for  the  wronged  and  the  injured  of  every  condition  came  back 
to  honor  his  memory,  it  is  not  my  purpose  to  enlarge  upon.  His 
eulogy  is  his  life;  his  epitaph  is  the  general  grief;  his  monument, 
builded  by  his  own  hands,  is  the  eternal  statutes  of  freedom. 

Mr.  President,  when  I  look  back  over  this  long  period,  crowded 
with  great  events,  and  which  has  witnessed  the  convulsion  of  the 
nation,  the  reorganization  and  reconstruction  of  our  political  system; 
when,  in  my  mind's  eye,  I  people  this  chamber  with  those  whose 
forms  have  been  familiar  to  me,  whose  names,  many  of  them  his 
torical,  have  been  labeled  on  these  desks  and  are  now  carved  on 
the  marble  that  covers  their  dust,  I  am  filled  with  a  sadness  inex 
pressible,  yet  full  of  consolation.  For,  musing  on  the  transitory 
nature  of  all  sublunary  things,  I  come  to  perceive  that  their  instabil 
ity  is  not  in  their  essence,  but  in  the  forms  which  they  assume  and  in 
the  agencies  that  operate  upon  them ;  and  when  I  recall  those  whom 
I  have  seen  fall  around  me,  and  whom  I  thought  necessary  to  the' 
success,  almost  to  the  preservation  of  great  principles,  I  recall  also 
those  whom  I  have  seen  step  into  the  vacant  places,  put  on  the  armor 
which  they  wore,  lift  the  weapons  which  they  wielded,  and  march  on 
to  the  consummation  of  the  work  which  they  inaugurated.  And  thus 
I  am  filled  with  reverent  wonder  at  the  beneficent  ordering  of  nature, 
and  inspired  with  a  loftier  faith  in  that  Almighty  Power  without  whose 
guidance  and  direction  all  human  effort  is  vain,  and  with  whose  bless 
ing  the  humblest  instruments  that  He  selects  are  equal  to  the  mightiest 
work  that  He  designs. 

And  now,  Mr.  President,  as  a  further  tribute  of  respect  to  the  mem 
ory  of  our  departed  associate,  I  move  that  the  Senate  adjourn. 

The  motion  was  agreed  to;  and  (at  two  o'clock  and  thirteen  min 
utes  p.  m.)  the  Senate  adjourned. 


52  PROCEEDINGS     IN     THE     HOUSE. 


IN  THE  HOUSE  OF  REPRESENTATIVES, 

MONDAY,  April  27,  1874. 

A  message  from  the  Senate,  by  Mr.  MCDONALD,  their  Chief  Clerk, 
informed  the  House  that  the  Senate  had  adopted  resolutions  for  the 
purpose  of  showing  an  additional  mark  of  respect  to  the  memory  of 
CHARLES  SUMNER,  late  a  Senator  of  the  United  States  from  the 
Commonwealth  of  Massachusetts. 

The  SPEAKER.  The  resolutions  just  received  from  the  Senate 
will  be  read. 

The  Clerk  read  as  follows : 

IN  THE  SENATE  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES, 

April  27,  1874. 

Resolved,  That  as  an  additional  mark  of  respect  to  the  memory  of 
CHARLES  SUMNER,  long  a  Senator  from  Massachusetts,  business  be 
now  suspended,  that  the  friends  and  associates  of  the  deceased  may 
pay  fitting  tribute  to  his  public  and  private  virtues. 

Resolved,  That  the  Secretary  of  the  Senate  be  instructed  to  com 
municate  these  resolutions  to  the  House  of  Representatives. 

Mr.  E.  R.  HOAR.  I  offer  the  resolution  which  I  send  to  the 
Clerk's  desk. 

The  Clerk  read  as  follows  : 

Resolved,  That  as  an  additional  mark  of  respect  to  the  memory  of 
CHARLES  SUMNER,  long  a  Senator  from  Massachusetts,  and  in  sym 
pathy  witVi  the  action  of  the  Senate,  business  be  now  suspended  in 
this  House  to  allow  fitting  tributes  to  be  paid  to  his  public  and  pri 
vate  virtues. 

The  resolution  was  unanimously  adopted. 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  CHARLES  SUMNER.      53 


ADDRESS    OF    yVlR.     JL.     ft.    j^OAR,     OF      MASSACHUSETTS. 

Mr. SPEAKER:  When,  more  than  six  weeks  ago,  the  announcement 
of  the  death  of  the  Senator  from  Massachusetts  was  made  in  this 
Hall,  the  shock  was  so  sudden,  the  sense  of  loss  and  bereavement  so 
great,  that  we  felt  the  most  fitting  employment  of  the  time  to  be  to 
"  commune  with  our  own  hearts,  and  be  still."  Public  business  was 
suspended  until  that  lifeless  form  could  be  brought  to  rest  for  a  few 
hours  under  the  great  Dome  of  the  Capitol,  crowned  by  the  emblem 
of  that  liberty  at  whose  altar  the  homage  of  his  life  had  been  offered; 
and  then,  in  the  Senate  Chamber,  by  Senators  and  Representatives, 
President  and  Cabinet,  judges  and  warriors,  the  ministers  of  foreign 
powers,  clergy  and  people,  in  the  presence  of  the  great  reconciler, 
Death,  were  performed  those  funeral  rites  with  which  the  nation 
honors  those  of  her  sons  who  have  "fallen  in  high  places." 

We  bore  him  from  these  scenes  of  his  public  labors  to  the  old 
Commonwealth  which  gave  him  birth ;  and  there,  in  the  home  of  his 
childhood  and  manhood,  in  the  presence  of  countless  thousands  who 
thronged  to  unite  in  that  last  tribute  of  respect  and  affection,  the 
State  reverently  and  tenderly  committed  to  the  earth,  to  mingle 
with  kindred  dust,  the  earthly  remains  of  her  foremost  public  man 
and  best  beloved  citizen. 

And  now  that  his  character  and  fame  are  passing  into  memory 
and  history,  it  is  fitting  that  we,  his  contemporaries  and  associates  in 
the  public  service,  should  be  allowed  a  brief  opportunity  to  express 
our  estimate  of  the  man,  and  of  his  relation  to  his  country  and  man 
kind. 

CHARLES  SUMNER  was  born  in  Boston,  on  the  6th  of  January, 
1811,  the  son  of  Charles  Pinckney  Sumner,  who  was  for  a  long  time 
the  sheriff  of  Suffolk  County.  His  early  education  was  at  the  Boston 
Latin  School,  from  which  he  entered  Harvard  College,  and  graduated 


54  ADDRESS     OF     MR.      E.      R.     HOAR     ON     THE 

with  distinction  in  1830.  He  studied  law  under  Story  and  Greenleaf 
in  the  law  school  of  that  institution,  and  was  for  three  years  employed 
to  take  the  place  of  Judge  Story  as  a  lecturer  and  instructor  in  law 
during  the  sessions  of  the  Supreme  Court  at  Washington.  He  spent 
the  next  three  years  in  Europe,  where  both  in  England  and  on  the 
Continent  he  formed  the  acquaintance  and  gained  the  friendship  of 
many  distinguished  men;  acquired  a  familiarity  with  some  European 
languages;  diligently  pursued  his  studies  in  literature,  history,  and 
jurisprudence,  and  gratified  as  well  as  cultivated  his  taste  for  art. 
He  returned  to  the  practice  and  study  of  his  profession,  in  which  he 
gained  an  honorable  and  distinguished  position,  chiefly  due  to  his 
profound  and  extensive  learning.  He  never  argued  many  cases,  but 
conducted  such  as  he  had  with  marked  ability  and  success.  He 
edited  the  American  Jurist,  the  twenty  volumes  of  Vesey's  Reports, 
and  was  the  reporter  of  three  volumes  of  the  decisions  of  Judge 
Story  in  the  first  circuit.  His  first  public  performance  which  attracted 
general  attention  was  his  oration  on  "The  true  grandeur  of  nations," 
before  the  municipal  authorities  of  Boston,  on  the  4th  of  July,  1845, 
which  Richard  Cobden  pronounced  "the  most  noble  contribution 
made  by  any  modern  writer  to  the  .cause  of  peace." 

He  had  voted  with  the  whig  party,  but  took  no  active  part  in 

t 
political   affairs,  until   the  great  controversy  upon   the   question  of 

slavery,  especially  as  affected  by  the  war  with  Mexico  and  the  pro 
posed  annexation  of  Texas,  brought  him  into  the  front  rank  of  the 
advocates  of  universal  liberty.  He  declined  a  nomination  as  a  Rep 
resentative  in  Congress. 

In  April,  1851,  he  was  elected  to  the  Senate  of  the  United  States, 
for  the  full  term  succeeding  that  which  had  been  held  by  Mr.  Web 
ster,  and  in  its  last  few  months  by  Mr.  Winthrop  and  Mr.  Rantoul. 
His  election  was  made  by  a  coalition  of  the  free-soil  party  and  the 
democrats;  Mr.  Boutwell,  who  was  the  democratic  candidate  for 
governor  of  Massachusetts,  being  elected  by  the  same  combination  of 


LIFE   AND    CHARACTER   OF    CHARLES    SUMNER.  55 

parties.  He  took  his  seat  in  the  Senate  on  the  ist  of  December,  1851. 
His  first  great  speech  in  the  Senate  was  in  support  of  a  motion  to 
repeal  the  fugitive-slave  law,  and  was  delivered  on  the  26th  of 
August,  1852. 

He  was  struck  down  at  his  desk  in  the  Senate  Chamber  by  blows 
upon  the  head  inflicted  by  a  Representative  from  South  Carolina,  on 
the  1 8th  of  May,  1856,  in  professed  revenge  for  words  spoken  in 
debate  two  days  before.  The  terrible  injury  to  the  spinal  column, 
which  was  nearly  fatal  at  the  time,  resulted  in  the  malady,  angina 
pectoris,  which  at  last  terminated  his  life.  In  consequence  of  the  suf 
fering  and  illness  caused  by  this  assault,  he  was  absent  from  his 
place  in  the  Senate  during  most  of  the  time  for  four  years.  He  was 
re-elected  to  the  Senate  in  1857,  in  1863,  and  in  1869;  and  died  on 
the  nth  of  March,  1874,  having  attended  the  session  of  that  body 
on  the  day  before  his  death. 

Such  are  the  simple  outlines  of  his  life;  yet  how  affluent  a  culture, 
how  lofty  a  purpose,  how  rich  a  nature,  how  wide  an  influence,  how 
absolute  a  conscience,  how  perfect  an  integrity,  how  enduring  a  fame, 
how  tender  and  affectionate  a  heart,  belonged  to  the  man  who  filled 
out  those  outlines  to  the  full  measure  of  a  noble  and  heroic  character ! 
The  only  office  he  ever  held  was  that  of  Senator  from  Massachusetts, 
and  when  he  died  he  was  the  senior  Senator  in  length  of  continuous 
service.  His  successive  re-elections  were  carried  by  great  waves  of 
public  sentiment;  without  bargains,  without  concealments,  without 
pledges,  except  those  of  his  life  and  known  opinions,  and  without 
competitors. 

For  twenty-three  years  the  record  of  his  public  life  is  the  history 
of  the  country.  He  took  part  in  all  the  great  debates,  and  his  name 
is  indelibly  associated  with  all  the  great  results  which  that  period  has 
produced.  And  what  accomplished  results  it  was  his  privilege  to  see! 
How  much  of  the  great  work  and  object  of  his  life  were  attained 
before  it  closed! 


56  ADDRESS     OF     MR.     E.     R.     HOAR     ON     THE 

When  he  entered  the  Senate  there  were  but  two  others  there  of  his 
political  opinions.  Before  he  died  he  was  the  leader  of  a  majority  of 
more  than  two-thirds  of  the  body.  He  came  there  the  advocate  of 
impartial  liberty  throughout  the  land,  the  antagonist  of  slavery  wher 
ever  it  could  be  reached  under  the  Constitution.  He  was  treated  as 
a  detested  fanatic,  tried  for  months  in  vain  to  get  a  hearing,  and  was 
even  refused  a  place  on  any  committee,  as  "outside  of  any  healthy 
political  organization."  He  lived  to  see  the  adoption  of  the  thir 
teenth,  fourteenth,  and  fifteenth  amendments  to  the  Constitution,  to 
be  the  head  of  the  Committee  on  Foreign  Relations,  to  see  men  of 
the  proscribed  color  admitted  to  seats  in  both  branches  of  Congress, 
and  to  know  that  he  had  the  gratitude  and  affection  of  the  race  he 
had  helped  to  emancipate,  with  the  respect  and  confidence  of  the 
nation  before  whom  he  had  pleaded  that  "nothing  is  safer  than  jus 
tice,"  and  to  whom  he  had  contended  that  "nothing  is  settled  that  is 
not  right." 

His  first  public  utterance  was  in  favor  of  peace,  and  of  the  amica 
ble  settlement  of  differences  among  nations,  which  was  contempt 
uously  received  as  the  dream  of  a  visionary  enthusiast.  He  lived  to 
see  the  negotiation  of  the  Treaty  of  Washington  and  its  consumma 
tion  in  the  arbitration  at  Geneva. 

Mr.  SUMMER  was  thoroughly  and  truly  an  American.  He  believed 
in  his  country,  in  her  unity,  her  grandeur,  her  ideas,  and  her  destiny. 
He  had  drank  deep  from  the  sources  of  American  institutions  in  the 
writings  and  lives  of  our  revolutionary  fathers.  He  was  an  idealist, 
and  trusted  the  future.  To  his  far-reaching  vision  it  was  always  true 
that— 

"Every  gift  of  noblest  origin 
Is  breathed  upon  by  hope's  perpetual  breath." 

His  spirit  was  of  the  morning,  and  "his  face  was  radiant  with  the 
sunrise  he  intently  watched."  He  saw  in  the  future  of  America  a 
noble  and  puissant  nation,  its  grand  Constitution  conformed  to  and 


LIFE    AND    CHARACTER   OF    CHARLES    SUMNER.  57 

construed  by  the  grander  declaration  of  1776,  purged  of  every  stain 
and  inconsistency,  the  home  of  the  homeless,  the  refuge  of  the  op 
pressed,  the  paradise  of  the  poor,  the  example  of  honor,  justice,  peace, 
and  freedom  to  the  nations  of  the  earth. 

His  personal  integrity  was  so  absolute  that  no  breath  of  suspicion 
even  ever  sullied  it.  He  said  to  a  friend,  "  People  talk  about  the 
corruption  of  Washington;  I  have  lived  here  all  these  years  and 
have  seen  nothing  of  it."  He  never  had  any  tracks  to  cover  up,  or 
opinions  or  motives  to  conceal. 

You  remember  well  his  commanding  presence,  his  stalwart  frame, 
six  feet  and  four  inches  in  height,  the  vigor  and  grace  of  his  motions, 
the  charm  of  his  manners,  the  polish  of  his  rhetoric,  the  abundance  of 
his  learning,  the  fervor  and  impressiveness  of  his  oratory.  He  was 
every  inch  a  Senator,  and  upheld  with  zeal  and  fidelity  the  dignity, 
privileges,  and  authority  of  the  Senate.  He  never  seems  to  have 
known  fear.  His  courage  and  power  of  resolute  endurance  were 
conspicuously  shown  in  his  undergoing  the  moxa,  the  application  of 
hot  irons  the  whole  length  of  the  spine,  which  his  physician  says  was 
the  most  terrible  torture  he  ever  knew  inflicted  on  man  or  animal,  and 
which  he  bore  without  taking  ether,  because  he  was  told  that  by  so 
doing  there  was  a  little  better  prospect  that  the  treatment  would  be 
efficacious. 

There  is  no  doubt  that  he  died  a  martyr  to  the  cause  of  liberty, 
and  to  the  efforts  which  he  would  not  relax  in  its  behalf,  as  truly  as 
they  who  fell  on  the  field  of  stricken  battle.  The  bludgeon  preceded 
the  bayonet  and  the  bullet  in  that  civil  war  which  began  long  before 
1 86 1 ;  and  did  its  work  of  death  as  surely,  if  more  slowly. 

Of  his  private  life,  of  his  genial  and  liberal  hospitality,  of  the 
strength  and  warmth  of  his  friendships,  of  his  curious  stores  of  in 
formation,  of  his  treasures  of  literature  and  art,  of  his  tenderness 
and  sweetness  toward  those  who  loved  and  trusted  him,  there  is  no 
time  or  need  to  speak  in  this  place,  on  this  occasion.  But  there  are 


58  ADDRESS     OF     MR.     E.     R.     HOAR     ON     THE 

many  of  the  pure  and  gentle,  of  the  thoughtful  and  richly  cultured,  to 
whom  the  tidings  of  his  death  brought  tender  and  precious  memories 
of  these  things. 

No  doubt  Mr.  SUMNER  had  defects  of  character.  I  think  he  had 
little  sense  of  humor,  and  some  more  of  it  might  have  been  of  service 
to  him.  He  was  an  orator,  and  not  a  debater;  and  if  he  had  had 
more  of  the  training  of  the  bar  and  the  popular  assembly,  might  per 
haps  sometimes  have  made  a  more  direct  and  forcible  impression  upon 
those  whom  he  sought  to  convince,  and  who  were  wearied  with  stately 
periods  and  inexhaustible  learning.  But  some  of  his  faults  were 
closely  allied  to  his  virtues,  and  to  the  sources  of  his  power.  He  was 
of  an  imperious  nature,  and  intolerant  of  difference  in  opinion  by  his 
associates,  and  has  been  called  an  egotist.  But  all  this  came  largely 
from  the  strength  of  his  convictions;  from  his  own  belief  in  his  own 
thoroughness  of  study  and  purity  of  purpose;  from  what  has  been 
happily  described  as  his  "sublime  confidence  in  his  own  moral  saga 
city."  He  was  terribly  in  earnest,  and  could  not  understand  how 
others  could  fail  to  see  what  he  saw  so  clearly. 

It  may,  indeed,  be  true  that  in  advancing  age,  and  while  striving 
to  bear  up  and  do  his  work  under  a  terrible  burden  of  shattered  health 
and  worn  nerves,  he  made  judgments  which  some  of  us  have  thought 
unjust,  and  severed  associations  which  some  of  us  would  have  gladly 
seen  preserved. 

But  let  me  say  for  him  that  I  believe  he  carried  to  the  grave  as  few 
resentments,  as  little  animosity,  as  rarely  is  found  in  the  hearts  of  men 
whose  lives  have  been  passed  in  scenes  of  public  conflict.  I  saw  him 
frequently  and  familiarly  during  the  last  four  months  of  his  life,  and 
wish  to  give  my  testimony  to  the  gentleness  and  kindliness  of  his 
temper  during  all  that  time,  and  to  the  fact  that  he  uttered  no  word 
of  harshness  or  censure  in  my  hearing  concerning  any  human  being. 
It  was  noticeable  and  touching  to  observe,  it  is  gratifying  to  remem- 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  CHARLES  SUMNER.     59 

ber,  and  I  think  it  would  have  been  pleasant  to  him  to  know  that  it 
would  be  here  remembered  of  him. 

But  the  time  allowed  me  is  short,  and  I  must  not  withhold  your 
attention  from  those  who  are  to  follow. 

I  cannot  better  sum  up  the  character  I  have  described  than  by 
adopting  language  which  has  been  applied  to  the  character  of  Milton : 

"  A  high  ideal  purpose  maintained,  a  function  discharged  through 
life  with  unwavering  consistency;  austerity,  but  the  austerity  not  of 
monks  but  of  heroes;  incapable  of  depression,  but  also,  as  far  as  ap 
pears,  incapable  of  mirth." 

As  I  stood  by  the  dying  bed  of  him  who  was  my  friend  for  thirty 
years,  and  heard  the  repeated  exclamation,  "  O,  so  tired!  O,  so 
weary!"  the  old  hymn  of  the  church  seemed  to  be  sounding  in  my 
ears: 

"Yes,  peace!  for  war  is  needless; 
Yes,  calm!  for  storm  is  past; 
And  rest  from  finished  labor, 
And  anchorage  at  last." 

The  weary  are  at  rest !  The  good  and  faithful  servant  has  entered 
into  the  joy  of  his  Lord! 


ADDRESS  OF    M.R,   I^AMAR,  OF    MISSISSIPPI. 

Mr.  SPEAKER:  In  rising  to  second  the  resolutions  just  offered,  I 
desire  to  add  a  few  remarks  which  have  occurred  to  me  as  appropri 
ate  to  the  occasion.  I  believe  that  they  express  a  sentiment  which 
pervades  the  hearts  of  all  the  people  whose  Representatives  are  here 
assembled.  Strange  as,  in  looking  back  upon  the  past,  the  assertion 
may  seem,  impossible  as  it  would  have  been  ten  years  ago  to  make 
it,  it  is  not  the  less  true  that  to-day  Mississippi  regrets  the  death  of 
CHARLES  SUMNER  and  sincerely  unites  in  paying  honors  to  his  mem 
ory.  Not  because  of  the  splendor  of  his  intellect,  though  in  him  was 


60  ADDRESS     OF     MR.      LA  MAR     ON     THE 

extinguished  one  of  the  brightest  of  the  lights  which  have  illustrated 
the  councils  of  the  Government  for  nearly  a  quarter  of  a  century; 
not  because  of  the  high  culture,  the  elegant  scholarship,  and  the 
varied  learning  which  revealed  themselves  so  clearly  in  all  his  public 
efforts  as  to  justify  the  application  to  him  of  Johnson's  felicitous  ex 
pression,  "He  touched  nothing  which  he  did  not  adorn;"  not  this, 
though  these  are  qualities  by  no  means,  it  is  to  be  feared,  so  com 
mon  in  public  places  as  to  make  their  disappearance,  in  even  a  single 
instance,  a  matter  of  indifference;  but  because  of  those  peculiar  and 
strongly-marked  moral  traits  of  his  character  which  gave  the  color 
ing  to  the  whole  tenor  of  his  singularly  dramatic  public  career;  traits 
which  made  him  for  a  long  period,  to  a  large  portion  of  his  country 
men,  the  object  of  as  deep  and  passionate  a  hostility  as  to  another  he 
was  one  of  enthusiastic  admiration,  and  which  are  not  the  less  the 
cause  that  now  unites  all  these  parties,  once  so  widely  differing,  in  a 
common  sorrow  to-day  over  his  lifeless  remains. 

It  is  of  these  high  moral  qualities  which  I  wish  to  speak,  for  these 
have  been  the  traits  which,  in  after  years,  as  I  have  considered  the 
successive  acts  and  utterances  of  this  remarkable  man,  fastened  most 
strongly  my  attention,  and  impressed  themselves  most  forcibly  upon 
my  imagination,  my  sensibilities,  my  heart.  I  leave  to  others  to  speak 
of  his  intellectual  superiority,  of  those  rare  gifts  with  which  nature 
had  so  lavishly  endowed  him,  and  of  the  power  to  use  them  which 
he  had  acquired  by  education.  I  say  nothing  of  his  vast  and  varied 
stores  of  historical  knowledge,  or  of  the  wide  extent  of  his  reading 
in  the  elegant  literature  of  ancient  and  modern  times,  or  of  his  won 
derful  power  of  retaining  what  he  had  read,  or  of  his  readiness  in 
drawing  upon  these  fertile  resources  to  illustrate  his  own  arguments. 
I  say  nothing  of  his  eloquence  as  an  orator,  of  his  skill  as  a  logician, 
or  of  his  powers  of  fascination  in  the  unrestrained  freedom  of  the 
social  circle,  which  last  it  was  my  misfortune  not  to  have  experienced. 
These,  indeed,  were  the  qualities  which  gave  him  eminence,  not 


LIFE  AND  CHARACEER  OF  CHARLES  SUMNER.     6l 

only  in  our  country,  but  throughout  the  world,  and  which  have 
made  the  name  of  CHARLES  SUMNER  an  integral  part  of  our  nation's 
glory.  They  were  the  qualities  which  gave  to  those  moral  traits  of 
which  I  have  spoken  the  power  to  impress  themselves  upon  the  his 
tory  of  the  age  and  of  civilization  itself,  and  without  which  those 
traits,  however  intensely  developed,  would  have  exerted  no  influence 
beyond  the  personal  circle  immediately  surrounding  their  possessor. 
More  eloquent  tongues  than  mine  will  do  them  justice.  Let  me 
speak  of  the  characteristics  which  brought  the  illustrious  Senator  who 
has  just  passed  away  into  direct  and  bitter  antagonism,  for  years, 
with  my  own  State  and  her  sister  States  of  the  South. 

CHARLES  SUMNER  was  born  with  an  instinctive  love  of  freedom, 
and  was  educated  from  his  earliest  infancy  to  the  belief  that  freedom 
is  the  natural  and  indefeasible  right  of  every  intelligent  being  having 
the  outward  form  of  man.  In  him,  in  fact,  this  creed  seems  to  have 
been  something  more  than  a  doctrine  imbibed  from  teachers,  or  a 
result  of  education.  To  him  it  was  a  grand  intuitive  truth  inscribed 
in  blazing  letters  upon  the  tablet  of  his  inner  consciousness,  to  deny 
which  would  have  been  for  him  to  deny  that  he  himself  existed. 
And  along  with  this  all-controlling  love  of  freedom,  he  possessed  a 
moral  sensibility  keenly  intense  and  vivid,  a  consciousness  which 
would  never  permit  him  to  swerve  by  the  breadth  of  a  hair  from 
what  he  pictured  to  himself  as  the  path  of  duty.  Thus  were  com 
bined  in  him  the  characteristics  which  have  in  all  ages  given  to  reli 
gion  her  martyrs  and  to  patriotism  her  self-sacrificing  heroes. 

To  a  man  thoroughly  permeated  and  imbued  with  such  a  creed, 
and  animated  and  constantly  actuated  by  such  a  spirit  of  devotion,  to 
behold  a  human  being,  or  a  race  of  human  beings,  restrained  of  their 
natural  rights  to  liberty,  for  no  crime  by  him  or  them  committed,  was 
to  feel  all  the  belligerent  instincts  of  his  nature  roused  to  combat. 
The  fact  was  to  him  a  wrong  which  no  logic  could  justify.  It  mat 
tered  not  how  humble  in  the  scale  of  rational  existence  the  subject  of 


62  ADDRESS     OF     MR.     LAMAR     ON     THE 

this  restraint  might  be,  how  dark  his  skin,  or  how  dense  his  igno 
rance.  Behind  all  that  lay  for  him  the  great  principle  that  liberty  is 
the  birthright  of  all  humanity,  and  that  every  individual  of  every  race 
who  has  a  soul  to  save  is  entitled  to  the  freedom  which  may  enable 
him  to  work  out  his  salvation.  It  matters  not  that  the  slave  might 
be  contented  with  his  lot;  that  his  actual  condition  might  be  im 
measurably  more  desirable  than  that  from  which  it  had  transplanted 
him;  that  it  gave  him  physical  comfort,  mental  and  moral  elevation 
and  religious  culture  not  possessed  by  his  race  in  any  other  condi 
tion;  that  his  bonds  had  not  been  placed  upon  his  hands  by  the  liv 
ing  generation;  that  the  mixed  social  system  of  which  he  formed  an 
element  had  been  regarded  by  the  fathers  of  the  Republic,  and  by 
the  ablest  statesmen  who  had  risen  up  after  them,  as  too  complicated 
to  be  broken  up  without  danger  to  society  itself,  or  even  to  civiliza 
tion;  or,  finally,  that  the  actual  state  of  things  had  been  recognized 
and  explicitly  sanctioned  by  the  very  organic  law  of  the  Republic. 
Weighty  as  these  considerations  might  be,  formidable  as  were  the 
difficulties  in  the  way  of  the  practical  enforcement  of  his  great  princi 
ple,  he  held  none  the  less  that  it  must  sooner  or  later  be  enforced, 
though  institutions  and  constitutions  should  have  to  give  way  alike 
before  it.  But  here  let  me  do  this  great  man  the  justice  which,  amid 
the  excitements  of  the  struggle  between  the  sections,  now  past,  I  may 
have  been  disposed  to  deny  him.  In  this  fiery  zeal  and  this  earnest 
warfare  against  the  wrong,  as  he  viewed  it,  there  entered  no  endur 
ing  personal  animosity  toward  the  men  whose  lot  it  was  to  be  born 
to  the  system  which  he  denounced. 

It  has  been  the  kindness  of  the  sympathy  which  in  these  later  years 
he  has  displayed  toward  the  impoverished  and  suffering  people  of  the 
Southern  States  that  has  unveiled  to  me  the  generous  and  tender 
heart  which  beat  beneath  the  bosom  of  the  zealot,  and  has  forced  me 
to  yield  him  the  tribute  of  my  respect,  I  might  even  say  of  my  admi 
ration.  Nor  in  the  manifestation  of  this  has  there  been  anything 


LIFE   AND    CHARACTER   OF    CHARLES    SUMNER. 


which  a  proud  and  sensitive  people,  smarting  under  a  sense  of  recent 
discomfiture  and  present  suffering,  might  not  frankly  accept,  or  which 
would  give  them  just  cause  to  suspect  its  sincerity.  For  though  he 
raised  his  voice,  as  soon  as  he  believed  the  momentous  issues  of  this 
great  military  conflict  were  decided,  in  behalf  of  amnesty  to  the  van 
quished,  and  though  he  stood  forward  ready  to  welcome  back  as 
brothers  and  to  re-establish  in  their  rights  as  citizens  those  whose 
valor  had  so  nearly  riven  asunder  the  Union  which  he  loved,  yet  he 
always  insisted  that  the  most  ample  protection  and  the  largest  safe 
guards  should  be  thrown  around  the  liberties  of  the  newly  enfran 
chised  African  race.  Though  he  knew  very  well  that  of  his  conquered 
fellow-citizens  of  the  South,  by  far  the  larger  portion,  even  those  who 
most  heartily  acquiesced  in  and  desired  the  abolition  of  slavery,  seri 
ously  questioned  the  expediency  of  investing  in  a  single  day,  and 
without  any  preliminary  tutelage,  so  vast  a  body  of  inexperienced 
and  uninstructed  men  with  the  full  rights  of  freemen  and  voters,  he 
would  tolerate  no  half-way  measures  upon  a  point  to  him  so  vital. 

Indeed,  immediately  after  the  war,  while  other  minds  were  occupy 
ing  themselves  with  different  theories  of  reconstruction,  he  did  not 
hesitate  to  impress  most  emphatically  upon  the  administration,  not 
only  in  public,  but  in  the  confidence  of  private  intercourse,  his  un 
compromising  resolution  to  oppose  to  the  last  any  and  every  scheme 
which  should  fail  to  provide  the  surest  guarantees  for  the  personal 
freedom  and  political  rights  of  the  race  which  he  had  undertaken  to 
protect.  Whether  his  measures  to  secure  this  result  showed  him  to 
be  a  practical  statesman  or  a  theoretical  enthusiast  is  a  question  on 
which  any  decision  we  may  pronounce  to-day  must  await  the  inevit 
able  revision  of  posterity.  The  spirit  of  magnanimity,  therefore, 
which  breathes  in  his  utterances  and  manifests  itself  in  all  his  acts 
affecting  the  South  during  the  last  two  years  of  his  life,  was  as  evi 
dently  honest  as  it  was  grateful  to  the  feelings  of  those  to  whom  it 
was  displayed. 


64  ADDRESS     OF     MR.     LAMAR     ON     THE 

It  was  certainly  a  gracious  act  toward  the  South — though  unhap 
pily  it  jarred  upon  the  sensibilities  of  the  people  at  the  other  ex 
treme  of  the  Union  and  estranged  from  him  the  great  body  of  his 
political  friends — to  propose  to  erase  from  the  banners  of  the  national 
Army  the  mementoes  of  the  bloody  internecine  struggle,  which  might 
be  regarded  as  assailing  the  pride  or  wounding  the  sensibilities  of  the 
southern  people.  That  proposal  will  never  be  forgotten  by  that  people 
so  long  as  the  name  of  CHARLES  SUMNER  lives  in  the  memory  of  man. 
But  while  it  touched  the  heart  of  the  South  and  elicited  her  profound 
gratitude,  her  people  would  not  have  asked  of  the  North  such  an  act 
of  self-renunciation. 

Conscious  that  they  themselves  were  animated  by  devotion  to  con 
stitutional  liberty,  and  that  the  brightest  pages  of  history  are  replete 
with  evidences  of  the  depth  and  sincerity  of  that  devotion,  they  can 
but  cherish  the  recollections  of  sacrifices  endured,  the  battles  fought 
and  the  victories  won  in  defense  of  their  hapless  cause.  And  respect 
ing,  as  all  true  and  brave  men  must  respect,  the  martial  spirit  with 
which  the  men  of  the  North  vindicated  the  integrity  of  the  Union  and 
their  devotion  to  the  principles  of  human  freedom,  they  do  not  ask, 
they  do  not  wish,  the  North  to  strike  the  mementoes  of  her  heroism 
and  victory  from  either  records  or  monuments  or  battle-flags.  They 
would  rather  that  both  sections  should  gather  up  the  glories  won  by 
each  section,  not  envious,  but  proud  of  each  other,  and  regard  them 
a  common  heritage  of  American  valor. 

Let  us  hope  that  future  generations,  when  they  remember  the  deeds 
of  heroism  and  devotion  done  on  both  sides,  will  speak  not  of 
northern  prowess  or  southern  courage,  but  of  the  heroism,  fortitude, 
and  courage  of  Americans  in  a  war  of  ideas — a  war  in  which  each 
section  signalized  its  consecration  to  the  principles,  as  each  under 
stood  them,  of  American  liberty  and  of  the  Constitution  received 
from  their  fathers. 

It  was  my  misfortune,  perhaps  my  fault,  personally  never  to  have 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  CHARLES  SUMNER.      65 

known  this  eminent  philanthropist  and  statesman.  The  impulse  was 
often  strong  upon  me  to  go  to  him  and  offer  him  my  hand  and  my 
heart  with  it,  and  to  express  to  him  my  thanks  for  his  kind  and  con 
siderate  course  toward  the  people  with  whom  I  am  identified.  If  I 
did  not  yield  to  that  impulse  it  was  because  the  thought  occurred 
that  other  days  were  coming  in  which  such  a  demonstration  might  be 
more  opportune  and  less  liable  to  misconstruction.  Suddenly,  and 
without  premonition,  a  day  has  come  at  last  to  which,  for  such  a  pur 
pose,  there  is  no  to-morrow. 

My  regret  is  therefore  intensified  by  the  thought  that  I  failed  to 
speak  to  him  out  of  the  fullness  of  my  heart  while  there  was  yet  time. 

How  often  is  it  that  death  thus  brings  unavailingly  back  to  our 
remembrance  opportunities  unimproved;  in  which  generous  over 
tures,  prompted  by  the  heart,  remain  unoffered ;  frank  avowals  which 
rose  to  the  lips  remain  unspoken;  and  the  injustice  and  wrong  of 
bitter  resentments  remain  unrepaired  ! 

CHARLES  SUMNER  in  life  believed  that  all  occasion  for  strife  and  dis 
trust  between  the  North  and  South  had  passed  away,  and  that  there  no 
longer  remained  any  cause  for  continued  estrangement  between  these 
two  sections  of  our  common  country.  Are  there  not  many  of  us  who 
believe  the  same  thing  ?  Is  not  that  the  common  sentiment,  or  if 
it  is  not  ought  it  not  to  be,  of  the  great  mass  of  our  people  North 
and  South  ?  Bound  to  each  other  by  a  common  Constitution,  des 
tined  to  live  together  under  a  common  Government,  forming  unitedly 
but  a  single  member  of  the  great  family  of  nations,  shall  we  not  now 
at  last  endeavor  to  grow  toward  each  other  once  more  in  heart  as  we 
are  already  indissolubly  linked  to  each  other  in  fortunes  ?  Shall  we 
not,  over  the  honored  remains  of  this  great  champion  of  human  lib 
erty,  this  feeling  sympathizer  with  human  sorrow,  this  earnest  pleader 
for  the  exercise  of  human  tenderness  and  charity,  lay  aside  the  con 
cealments  which  serve  only  to  perpetuate  misunderstandings  and  dis 
trust,  and  frankly  confess  that  on  both  sides  we  most  earnestly  desire 


66  ADDRESS     OF     MR.     LAMAR     ON     THE 

to  be  one;  one  not  merely  in  political  organization;  one  not  merely 
in  identity  of  institutions;  one  not  merely  in  community  of  language 
and  literature  and  traditions  and  country;  but,  more  and  better  than 
all  that,  one  also  in  feeling  and  in  heart  ?  Am  I  mistaken  in  this  ? 
Do  the  concealments  of  which  I  speak  still  cover  animosities  which 
neither  time  nor  reflection  nor  the  march  of  events  have  yet  sufficed 
to  subdue  ?  I  cannot  believe  it.  Since  I  have  been  here  I  have 
watched  with  anxious  scrutiny  your  sentiments  as  expressed  not 
merely  in  public  debate,  but  in  the  abandon  of  personal  confidence. 
I  know  well  the  sentiments  of  these  my  southern  brothers,  whose 
hearts  are  so  infolded  that  the  feeling  of  each  is  the  feeling  of  all ; 
and  I  see  on  both  sides  only  the  seeming  of  a  constraint  which  each 
apparently  hesitates  to  dismiss.  The  South — prostrate,  exhausted, 
drained  of  her  life-blood  as  well  as  of  her  material  resources,  yet  still 
honorable  and  true — accepts  the  bitter  award  of  the  bloody  arbitra 
ment  without  reservation,  resolutely  determined  to  abide  the  result 
with  chivalrous  fidelity ;  yet,  as  if  struck  dumb  by  the  magnitude  of 
her  reverses,  she  suffers  on  in  silence. 

The  North,  exultant  in  her  triumph  and  elated  by  success,  still 
cherishes,  as  we  are  assured,  a  heart  full  of  magnanimous  emotions 
toward  her  disarmed  and  discomfited  antagonist;  and  yet,  as  if  mas 
tered  by  some  mysterious  spell,  silencing  her  better  impulses,  her 
words  and  acts  are  the  words  and  acts  of  suspicion  and  distrust. 

Would  that  the  spirit  of  the  illustrious  dead  whom  we  lament  to 
day  could  speak  from  the  grave  to  both  parties  to  this  deplorable 
discord  in  tones  which  should  reach  each  and  every  heart  throughout 
this  broad  territory,  "  My  countrymen,  know  one  another,  and  you  will 
love  one  another." 


LIFE    AND    CHARACTER   OF    CHARLES    SUMNER.  67 


ADDRESS    OF    yVLR.    pRTH,     OF    JNDIANA. 

Mr.  SPEAKER  :  By  virtue  of  resolutions  just  adopted,  the  ordinary 
business  of  Congress  is  temporarily  suspended. 

We  pause  to  recognize  the  presence  of  death  in  our  midst,  that 
mysterious  power  which  walketh  unseen,  whose  tread  is  unheard,  but 
whose  work  is  daily  and  hourly  bringing  anguish  to  some  bereaved 
family  circle.  We  pause  to  pay  tribute  to  the  memory  of  one  of  the 
most  distinguished  American  legislators. 

SUMNER  is  dead!  His  native  Massachusetts,  that  good  old  Com 
monwealth,  mourns.  Faneuil  Hall  is  clothed  in  the  habiliments  of 
woe.  But  Massachusetts  mourns  not  alone;  her  sister  States  are 
here  to-day  mingling  their  tears  with  her  tears. 

His  labors  were  not  confined  to  his  own  State;  his  work  embraced 
the  whole  Union.  The  cause  of  humanity  throughout  the  world 
enlisted  his  active  sympathy,  and  in  every  portion  of  our  ocean-girt 
Republic,  and  in  every  clime  where  Freedom  has  a  votary,  tears  are 
dropped  to  his  memory. 

Those  who  have  preceded  me  on  this  occasion  have,  more  ably 
than  I  could,  spoken  of  his  early  life  and  its  reminiscences  ;  of  his 
literary  and  professional  studies  and  of  his  equal  attachment  to  both; 
of  his  early  success  in  the  profession  of  his  choice,  demonstrating  at 
once  that  if  he  had  continued  to  walk  in  that  path  he  should  have 
attained  its  highest  honors,  as  he  subsequently  attained  the  highest 
honors  of  statesmanship. 

A  devoted  student,  possessing  a  strong  and  vigorous  mind,  enriched 
with  scholastic  and  scientific  research  in  almost  every  department  of 
human  knowledge  —  with  him  success  was  the  certain  and  legitimate 
offspring  of  an  effort  to  succeed. 

In  1851  he  was  chosen  to  the  Senate  of  the  United  States,  which 
position  he  held  thence  continuously  to  the  day  of  his  death.  Soon 
after  being  officially  informed  of  his  appointment,  he  addressed  a 


68  ADDRESS     OF     MR.     ORTH     ON     THE 

letter  to  the  legislature  of  Massachusetts,  from  which  I  present  an 
extract  eminently  characteristic  of  the  man,  and  indicating  his  high 
estimate  of  the  duties  thus  devolved  upon  him,  and  the  spirit  in  which 
these  duties  should  be  discharged  : 

"  Your  appointment  finds  me  in  a  private  station  with  which  I  am 
entirely  content.  For  the  first  time  in  my  life  I  am  called  to  political 
office.  *  *  *  I  accept  it  as  the  servant  of  Massachusetts,  mind 
ful  of  the  sentiments  solemnly  uttered  by  her  successive  Legislatures — 
of  the  genius  which  inspired  her  history,  and  of  the  men,  her  perpetual 
pride  and  ornament,  who  breathed  into  her  that  breath  of  liberty 
which  early  made  her  an  example  to  her  sister  States.  *  *  *  I 
accept  it  as  the  servant  of  the  Union,  bound  to  study  and  maintain 
with  equal  patriotic  care  the  interests  of  all  parts  of  our  country,  to 
discountenance  every  effort  to  lessen  any  of  those  ties  by  which  our 
fellowship  of  States  is  held  in  fraternal  company,  and  to  oppose  all 
sectionalism,  whether  it  appear  in  unconstitutional  efforts  by  the  North 
to  carry  so  great  a  boon  as  freedom  into  the  slave  States,  or  in  un 
constitutional  efforts  by  the  South,  aided  by  northern  allies,  to  carry 
the  sectional  evil  of  slavery  into  the  free  States,  or  in  whatsoever 
efforts  it  may  make  to  extend  the  sectional  domination  of  slavery 
over  the  National  Government." 

He  was  chosen  because  the  public  sentiment  of  Massachusetts 
indicated  him  as  a  fit  successor  to  her  greatest  statesman ;  and 
twenty-three  years  of  faithful  and  distinguished  service  in  the  Sen 
ate  have  fully  demonstrated  the  wisdom  of  that  sentiment,  while 
throughout  his  long  senatorial  career  his  countrymen  by  general 
consent  accorded  him  the  once  proud  Roman  title  of  '•'•Primus  inter 
illustres." 

He  entered  the  Senate  at  a  time  when  his  political  opinions  had 
few  supporters,  either  in  or  out  of  the  Senate ;  when,  to  use  a  phrase 
of  the  times,  he  was  "  outside  of  any  healthy  political  organization," 
and  when  ridicule,  satire,  opprobrium,  and  even  social  ostracism, 
were  visited  upon  anti-slavery  men. 

In  1860  he  was  placed  on  the  Committee  on  Foreign  Relations,  and 


LIFE    AND    CHARACTER   OF    CHARLES    STJMNER.  69 

on  Jhe  4th  of  March,  1861,  became  its  chairman.  This  position,  at 
all  times  one  of  great  responsibility,  especially  so  on  account  of  the 
important  and  delicate  functions  pertaining  to  the  Senate  in  connec 
tion  with  the  treaty-making  power  of  the  Government,  became 
vastly  more  important  in  consequence  of  the  rebellion  then  about 
being  inaugurated. 

It  is  hardly  necessary  for  me  to  add  that  his  acquirements  in  the 
field  of  general  literature,  his  thorough  knowledge  of  the  science  of 
the  law,  and  especially  that  branch  pertaining  to  the  "  law  of  nations," 
qualified  him  in  a  peculiar  manner  to  discharge  ably  and  intelligently 
the  duties  thus  devolving  upon  him. 

The  war  for  the  suppression  of  the  rebellion  involved  the  consid 
eration  of  many  intricate  and  important  questions  in  connection 
with  foreign  governments,  requiring  for  their  solution  the  utmost 
skill  and  prudence.  During  that  eventful  period  SUMNER  was  on 
most  confidential  terms  with  Secretary  Seward,  and  the  distinguished 
Secretary  and  no  less  distinguished  Senator  were  in  constant  consul 
tation  over  those  questions. 

The  wisdom  which  characterized  our  foreign  intercourse  during 
this  most  trying  period  in  our  history,  and  the  ability  with  which 
the  rights  of  the  Government  were  maintained  and  serious  com 
plications  avoided,  attest  equally  the  importance  of  those  consul 
tations  and  the  eminent  statesmanship  of  these  two  distinguished 
citizens. 

In  these  labors  he  seems  to  have  adhered  strictly  to  those  cardinal 
principles  adopted  at  an  early  period  of  our  diplomatic  history,  "  to 
avoid  all  entangling  alliances  with  foreign  nations;"  "to  demand 
nothing  but  what  is  right,  and  submit  to  nothing  that  is  wrong." 

His  senatorial  career  attests  that  in  no  just  sense  of  the  term  was 
he  ever  a  partisan,  but  co-operated  with  party  organization  only  so 
far  as  he  believed  such  organization  to  be  essential  to  the  accom 
plishment  of  his  great  purpose. 


70  ADDRESS     OF     MR.     ORTH     ON     THE 

That  purpose,  which  was  the  leading  principle  of  his  life,  was  to 
secure  beyond  doubt  or  contingency  "  the  equality  of  the  human 
race,"  and  with  him  it  became  the  "star  of  his  destiny,"  the  "sun  of 
his  Austerlitz."  He  frequently  expressed  this  principle  sententiously, 
as  "equality  of  rights  is  the  first  of  all  rights,"  " equality  before  the 
law;"  and  this  purpose  became  a  part  of  his  very  nature;  as  it  were, 
bone  of  his  bone  and  flesh  of  his  flesh.  It  was  this  which  led  him 
to  believe  and  to  act  upon  the  belief  that  all  men  should  be  free; 
that  freedom  should  encircle  the  earth  like  its  atmosphere;  that  in 
every  clime  the  chains  of  slavery  should  be  broken,  and  that  every 
where  man  created  in  the  image  of  his  Maker  should  stand  erect 
and  unshackled,  the  peer  of  his  neighbor,  in  the  presence  of 
God,  who  has  so  solemnly  proclaimed  that  He  "  is  no  respecter  of 
persons." 

The  blighting  curse  of  slavery  clouded  and  tarnished,  alas !  too 
long,  our  national  escutcheon.  Serpent-like,  it  crawled  into  the  very 
citadel  of  American  liberty,  and  coiled  its  slimy  folds  around  the  pil 
lars  of  the  Constitution,  infusing  its  poison  into  the  life-blood  of  the 
Republic,  and  striking,  as  with  the  touch  of  paralysis,  alike  all  classes 
of  our  people  and  every  department  of  the  Government. 

To  destroy  this  monster  was  the  enthusiastically  assumed  life-task 
of  SUMNER,  engrossing  all  his  thoughts,  enlisting  all  his  energies. 
To  the  accomplishment  of  this  task  he  subordinated  every  other  con 
sideration,  devoting  to  it  all  his  time,  his  great  talents,  and  his  varied 
learning.  His  unceasing  vigilance  was  equal  to  all  the  devices  and 
strategy  of  the  enemy,  who,  baffled  at  one  point  and  retreating  to 
another,  was  still  pursued  and  pressed  and  scourged.  He  met  bold 
ness  with  boldness,  audacity  with  firmness,  and  sophistry  with  the 
principles  of  eternal  truth.  The  battle  was  long- continued  and  often 
waged  with  apparently  unequal  forces,  but  SUMNER  faltered  not;  he 
had  counted  the  cost  from  the  beginning,  and  had  an  abiding  faith 
that,  with  the  God  of  Freedom  on  his  side,  complete  and  enduring 


LIFE    AND    CHARACTER    OF    CHARLES    SUMNER. 


victory  was  only  a  question  of  time;  and,  strengthened  and  animated 
by  that  faith,  he  was  willing  to  bide  that  time. 

Victory  came,  as  God  willed  it  should  come,  amid  war,  and  fire, 
and  blood,  amid  the  convulsive  throes  of  a  nation  struggling  for  ex 
istence  ;  it  came  while  unnumbered  graves  were  being  filled  with  the 
sad  remains  of  some  of  the  best  and  bravest  of  our  countrymen;  and 
that  victory  is  forever  embedded  as  with  adamant  in  the  Constitution 
in  these  words  of  living  light: 

"  Neither  slavery  nor  involuntary  servitude,  except  as  a  punishment 
for  crime,  whereof  the  party  shall  have  been  duly  convicted,  shall  exist 
within  the  United  States,  or  any  place  subject  to  their  jurisdiction." 

Thus  was  the  monster  slain;  and  amid  his  death-struggle,  and  his 
dying  groans,  four  millions  of  the  victims  of  his  power  rose,  unshackled 
and  unfettered,  and  with  prayers  and  songs  of  thanksgiving  praised 
the  God  of  Freedom  for  their  deliverance. 

Slavery  was  destroyed  and  freedom  obtained,  but  SUMNER  saw  that 
freedom  was  not  secure  without  equality  of  rights,  and  he  at  once 
addressed  himself  to  the  duty  devolving  upon  the  statesman  as  an 
inevitable  consequence  of  the  recent  struggle.  This  portion  of  our 
history  is  so  freshly  engraven  on  the  public  mind  that  a  mere  allusion 
to  it  is  all-sufficient.  The  removal  of  odious  disabilities  incident  to 
the  law  of  slavery,  the  granting  of  civil  rights  to  those  recently  eman 
cipated,  and  the  conferring  upon  them  political  privileges  and  fran 
chises,  were  events  which  followed  each  other  in  rapid  and  natural 
succession.  But  these  acts  were  not  accomplished  without  serious 
and  closely-contested  struggles,  for  the  prejudices  engendered  by 
slavery  did  not  die  with  slavery,  and  in  all  these  struggles  SUMNER 
was  a  most  prominent  and  a  most  able  leader. 

As  "equality  before  the  law"  was  the  leading  principle  of  his 
whole  life,  so  it  most  naturally  and  fitly  engrossed  his  dying  moments, 
and  almost  his  last  words  on  earth  were  an  injunction  to  a  valued 
friend,  "Take  care  of  my  civil-rights  bill." 


72  ADDRESS     OF     MR.     RAINEY     ON     THE 

With  such  a  life,  filled  with  such  deeds,  is  it  a  wonder  that  his 
death  has  called  forth  such  universal  regret  and  sympathy?  Is  it  a 
wonder  that  the  colored  man,  whose  cause  he  served  so  well  and  for 
whose  rights  he  struggled  so  successfully,  should  be  among  the  first 
at  his  death-bed  and  among  the  last  at  his  grave? 

Is  it  a  wonder  that  throughout  the  land  the  colored  men  should 
"regard  his  death  with  all  the  bitterness  of  a  personal  bereavement," 
and  "  owe  to  his  memory  a  lasting  debt  of  gratitude  ?  "  Is  it  a  won 
der  that  in  the  lowly  dwellings  of  the  freedmen  tears  of  bitterness 
should  course  down  the  furrowed  cheeks  of  the  former  slave,  who 
perchance  was  never  permitted  to  look  upon  his  face,  but  who  remem 
bers  his  benefactor  and  teaches  his  children  to  reverence  the  name 
and  fame  of  CHARLES  SUMNER? 

Mr.  Speaker,  years  ago  New  England's  poet  of  freedom  addressed 
to  the  memory  of  a  co-laborer  in  freedom's  cause  words  which  can 
appropriately  be  repeated  on  this  occasion : 

"  O  loved  of  thousands  !   to  thy  grave, 

Sorrowing  of  heart,  thy  brethren  bore  thee; 
The  poor  man  and  the  rescued  slave 

Wept,  as  the  broken  earth  closed  o'er  thee; 
And  grateful  tears,  like  summer  rain, 

Quickened  its  dying  grass  again  ! 
And  there,  as  to  some  pilgrim  shrine, 

Shall  come  the  outcast  and  the  lowly, 
Of  gentle  deeds  and  words  of  thine, 

Recalling  memories  sweet  and  holy  !" 


ADDRESS    OF    yVLR.     JR.AINEY,    OF    J5OUTH     CAROLINA. 

Mr.  SPEAKER  :  Not  long  since  we  were  called  upon  to  lay  aside  our 
accustomed  duties  of  legislation  to  participate  in  the  mournful  pro 
cession  that  signalized  the  departure  of  the  distinguished  statesman 
and  philanthropist  who  has  been  summoned  before  the  bar  of  our 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  CHARLES  SUMNER.      73 

final  Judge.  We  have  again  halted  to  pay  further  tribute  to  his 
memory  and  intrinsic  worth. 

The  announcement  of  the  death  of  CHARLES  SUMNER,  late  Senator 
from  the  State  of  Massachusetts,  sent  a  thrill  of  sorrow  and  cast  a 
shade  of  melancholy  gloom  over  this  country  more  pervading  in  its 
general  effects  than  any  similar  event  since  the  assassination  of  the 
lamented  Lincoln.  Language  such  as  I  have  at  my  command  is 
too  imperfect  and  feeble  to  convey  in  adequate  terms  the  high  esti 
mation  in  which  he  was  held,  or  to  express  fully  and  feelingly  the 
depth  of  grief  his  demise  has  occasioned.  Men  and  women  mourn 
his  loss  and  shed  the  tear  of  regretful  sadness,  not  only  in  large  cities 
and  their  palatial  dwellings,  occupied  by  the  learned  and  wealthy, 
but  in  villages  and  hamlets,  upon  farms  and  the  distant  plantations 
of  the  South;  into  the  cabins  of  the  unlettered  and  the  lowly  be 
reavement  found  its  way,  bowing  the  hearts  of  all  in  mournful  lam 
entation  for  this  irreparable  loss.  Mr.  SUMNER,  in  name  and  deeds, 
is  known,  revered,  and  esteemed  by  all  classes  of  our  people.  The 
remarkable  and  noble  battles  of  argument  and  eloquence  which  he 
has  fought  in  the  Senate  in  behalf  of  the  oppressed,  have  enshrined 
him  in  the  hearts  of  his  countrymen,  millions  of  whom  never  beheld 
his  majestic  form,  nor  heard  his  deep  and  impressive  voice — that 
voice  which  at  no  time  indulged  silence  when  the  cause  of  the 
down-trodden  and  the  enslaved  was  the  issue. 

Early  in  life  Mr.  SUMNER  espoused  the  cause  of  those  who  were 
not  able  to  speak  for  themselves,  and  whose  bondage  made  it  haz 
ardous  for  any  one  else  to  venture  a  word  in  their  behalf.  No  one 
knew  the  danger  and  magnitude  of  such  an  undertaking  better  than 
the  deceased.  Public  sentiment  at  that  time  was  opposed  to  his 
course;  ostracism  confronted  him;  friends  forsook  him;  but,  un 
daunted  and  full  of  courage,  he  pursued  the  right,  sustained  his  con 
victions,  and  lived  long  enough  to  see  the  fruition  of  his  earnest  labors. 
He  was  among  the  first  to  arouse  the  Commonwealth  of  his  beloved 


74  ADDRESS     OF     MR.     RAINEY     ON     THE 

Massachusetts  to  consider  the  justice  and  equity  of  mixed  schools. 
The  blows  he  gave  were  effectual;  the  separating  walls  could  not 
withstand  them;  they  consequently  tottered  and  fell.  The  doors  of 
the  school-houses  flew  open  to  all;  prejudice  was  well-nigh  consumed 
by  the  blaze  of  his  ardent  eloquence,  and  proscription  gave  way  to 
more  liberal  views.  It  was  upon  his  motion  that  the  first  colored 
man  was  admitted  to  practice  before  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States. 

These  remarks  are  made  to  show  that  the  cause  of  my  race  was 
always  foremost  in  his  mind;  indeed,  he  was  a  friend  who  in  many 
instances  stuck  closer  than  a  brother.  He  was  one  of  those  who  never 
slumbered  upon  his  lance,  but  stood  ever  watchful  for  the  oppor 
tunity  to  hurl  the  shaft  of  his  forensic  powers  against  the  institution  of 
slavery.  The  forum,"  the  platform,  and  the  legislative  hall  bear  equal 
testimony  to  his  untiring  zeal  and  determined  opposition  thereto. 

The  barbarities  and  atrocities  of  slavery,  through  the  aid  of  his 
giant  mind,  were  brought  to  the  attention  of  the  American  people 
and  the  world  in  a  manner  and  style  hitherto  unknown.  He  was 
God's  chosen  advocate  of  freedom  and  denouncer  of  the  crime  of  the 
"peculiar  institution"  which  blurred  the  fair  record  and  threatened 
ultimately  to  destroy  the  growing  fame  of  his  country.  So  attractive, 
instructive,  and  inviting  was  his  mode  of  argument,  that  even  those 
who  opposed  him  most  strenuously  were  constrained  to  "read,  mark, 
learn,  and  inwardly  digest"  his  utterances.  This  was  doubtless 
owing  in  a  great  measure  to  his  rare  talents  and  acquirements,  and 
the  splendid  opportunity  he  enjoyed  of  speaking  to  the  country. 

Mr.  SUMNER  was  a  patriot  of  no  ordinary  rank.  He  was  a  lover 
of  his  country,  the  whole  country,  in  the  broadest  and  the  most  com 
prehensive  signification  of  the  term.  Whatever  he  did  to  hinder  the 
extension  of  slavery  or  to  hasten  the  day  of  its  final  abolition,  was 
based  not  upon  hatred  or  antipathy  to  the  South,  but  upon  a  con 
viction  that  it  was  not  only  wrong  to  humanity,  but  an  accursed  blot 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  CHARLES  SUMNER.      75 

upon  the  escutcheon  of  the  Republic.  He  knew  full  well  that  it 
would  tarnish  the  beauty  of  its  history;  therefore  he  felt  the  duty 
pressing  to  combat  it.  In  a  word,  he  did  not  hate  the  South  nor  the 
slaveholder,  but  he  hated  and  detested  slavery.  His  desire  was  that 
the  South  as  well  as  the  North  should  share  in  the  real  grandeur  of 
this  republican  empire.  He  was  aware  that  the  impartial  historian 
could  not  complete  his  task  so  long  as  slavery  existed,  unless  the  pen, 
as  it  were,  was  dipped  in  human  blood;  the  thought  of  which  to  him 
was  revolting.  O  that  the  South  had  heeded  his  admonition  and 
let  the  oppressed  go  free!  As  a  statesman,  Mr.  SUMNER  may  have 
allowed  his  zeal  to  outrun  his  discretion,  and  thus  made  mistakes. 
"To  err  is  human;  to  forgive,  divine." 

It  was  evident,  however,  that  his  errors  ever  leaned  to  the  side  of 
justice  and  humanity.  He  could  not  comprehend  any  fundamental 
law  that  did  not  embrace  in  its  provisions  the  cause  of  the  poor  and 
the  needy;  consequently  his  construction  of  the  Constitution  differed 
in  many  essential  particulars  from  that  put  upon  it  by  other  states 
men,  who  were  less  liberal  in  their  opinions  and  more  partial  and 
biased  in  their  judgment.  He  was  strong  to  his  convictions,  faithful 
to  duty,  and  true  to  his  country.  How  appropriate  are  the  follow 
ing  lines  in  tracing  his  active  and  useful  life ; 

"Stanch  at  thy  post,  to  meet  life's  common  doom, 
It  scarce  seems  death  to  die  as  thou  hast  died; 
Thy  duty  done,  thy  truth,  strength,  courage  tried, 
And  all  things  ripe  for  the  fulfilling  tomb ! 
A  crown  would  mock  thy  hearse's  sable  gloom, 
Whose  virtues  raised  thee  higher  than  a  throne, 
Whose  faults  were  erring  Nature's,  not  his  own, — 
Such  be  thy  sentence,  writ  with  Fame's  bright  plume, 
Amongst  the  good  and  great;  for  thou  wast  great 
In  thought,  word,  deed — like  mightiest  ones  of  old — 
Full  of  the  honest  truth,  which  makes  men  bold, 
Wise,  pure,  firm,  just;  the  noblest  Roman's  state 
Became  not  more  a  ruler  of  the  free 
Than  thy  plain  life,  high  thoughts,  and  matchless  constancy." 


76  ADDRESS     OF     M  R .     RAINEY     ON     THE 

Compared  to  his  admirers,  Mr.  SUMNER'S  circle  of  intimate  friends 
was  not  very  numerous.  Only  a  few  genial  spirits  imparted  to  him 
social  pleasure  and  mental  enjoyment.  He  found  his  chief  delight 
in  the  companionship  of  books  and  the  study  of  the  fine  arts.  But 
with  this  rare  appreciation  for  the  classic  and  the  artistic  he  possessed, 
in  an  astonishing  degree,  the  faculty  of  adapting  himself  to  social 
intercourse  with  those  whose  attainments  were  not  commensurate 
with  his  own.  He  was  always  willing  to  receive  such  as  visited  him 
seeking  counsel  or  advice,  without  regard  to  present  circumstances 
or  former  condition.  His  friendship,  when  formed,  was  sincere  and 
advantageous.  I  did  myself  the  honor  to  call  upon  him  occasion 
ally,  not  as  often,  however,  as  I  felt  inclined,  for  I  knew  that  his  time 
was  valuable,,  not  only  to  himself,  but  to  his  country.  Never  did  I 
call  but  I  found  him  glad  to  see  me  and  ready  to  lay  aside  constant 
ly-exacting  duties  and  engage  in  such  conversation  as  invariably 
resulted  in  my  being  benefited.  It  was  very  perceptible  that  the  aim 
and  bent  of  his  master  mind  was  to  elevate  to  true  manhood  the  race 
with  which  I  am  particularly  identified.  I  can  never  forget,  so  long 
as  I  have  the  faculty  of  recollection,  the  warm  and  friendly  grasp  he 
gave  my  hand  soon  after  I  was  admitted  a  member  of  this  House. 
On  my  first  visit  to  the  Senate  he  said,  "I  welcome  you  to  this 
Chamber.  Come  over  frequently;  you  have  rights  here  as  well  as 
others." 

During  his  senatorial  career,  embracing  a  period  of  twenty-three 
years,  he  has  contended  for  a  moral  principle  against  enemies  more 
daring  and  intrepid,  perhaps,  than  any  other  man  has  encountered 
in  the  same  space  of  time.  This  principle  was  to  him  more  dear 
than  life  itself.  His  conscientious  conviction  that  slavery  was  a 
national  crime  and  moral  sin  could  not  endure  tamely  assertions  to 
the  contrary.  He  heeded  not  the  menacing  denunciations  of  those 
"  who  eat  the  bread  of  wickedness  and  drink  the  wine  of  violence." 
Their  execrations'"  could  not  move  nor  intimidate  him.  Finding 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER   OF    CHARLES    SUMNER.  77 

these  instruments  of  wickedness  could  not  deter  him  or  turn  the  keen 
edge  of  his  argument,  he  was  brutally  and  cowardly  assaulted  in  the 
Senate  Chamber,  in  1856,  by  Preston  S.  Brooks,  a  Representative 
from  South  Carolina.  This  occurred  a  few  days  after  his  masterly 
effort  setting  forth  the  "  Crimes  against  Kansas." 

Mr.  Speaker,  that  unprovoked  assault  declared  to  the  country  the 
threatening  attitude  of  the  two  sections,  one  against  the  other,  and 
awakened  a  determination  on  the  part  of  the  North  to  resist  the  en 
croachments  of  slavery.  The  unexpressed  sympathy  that  was  felt  for 
him  among  the  slaves  of  the  South,  when  they  heard  of  this  unwar 
ranted  attack,  was  only  known  to  those  whose  situations  at  the  time 
made  them  confidants.  Their  prayers  and  secret  importunities  were 
ever  uttered  in  the  interest  of  him  who  was  their  constant  friend  and 
untiring  advocate  and  defender  before  the  high  court  of  the  nation. 

Mr.  Speaker,  it  is  said  that  "the  blood  of  the  martyrs  is  the  seed 
of  the  church."  With  equal  truthfulness  and  force,  I  think,  it  may 
be  said  that  the  blood  of  CHARLES  SUMNER,  spilled  upon  the  floor  of 
the  Senate  because  he  dared  to  oppose  the  slave-power  of  the  South 
and  to  interpose  in  the  path  of  its  progress,  was  the  seed  that  pro 
duced  general  emancipation,  the  result  of  which  is  too  well  known 
to  need  comment.  It  spoke  silently  but  effectively  of  the  cruelty  and 
iniquities  of  that  abominable  institution. 

Notwithstanding  that  dastardly  assault,  his  valor  was  not  cooled, 
neither  was  his  determination  abated  to  resist  the  advancing  steps  of 
that  power  which  was  the  source  of  so  much  distraction  to  the  Re 
public  and  disgrace  to  the  nineteenth  century.  Sir,  I  believe  in  a 
Providence  that  shapes  events  and  controls  circumstances.  His  hand 
is  most  conspicuously  seen  in  the  life  and  death  of  the  lamented  Sen 
ator.  Though  he  was  a  martyr  to  the  cause  of  freedom  and  universal 
liberty,  he  nevertheless  lived  long  enough  to  see  the  struggles  of  his 
eventful  public  life  crowned  with  victory,  and  the  broken  shackles  of 
the  slave  scattered  at  his  feet  before  he  was  gathered  to  his  fathers. 


78  ADDRESS     OF     MR.     RAINEY     ON     THE 

The  emancipated  and  enfranchised  will  pay  grateful  homage  to  his 
memory  in  life,  and,  dying,  bequeath  the  name  of  him  who  was  their 
benefactor  as  a  befitting  one  for  the  reverence  and  adoration  of  pos 
terity. 

"  Farewell !  If  ever  fondest  prayer 

For  others'  weal  availed  on  high, 
Ours  will  not  be  lost  in  air, 

But  waft  thy  name  beyond  the  sky." 

Mr.  Speaker,  the  intentness  of  his  thought  on  the  subject  of  his 
mission,  for  which,  apparently,  he  was  born,  clung  to  him  to  the 
ebbing  moments  of  his  life.  When  weary  and  longing  for  rest,  hav 
ing  his  eyes  fixed  upon  that  "mansion  not  made  with  hands,  eternal 
in  the  heavens,"  and  just  preceding  his  final  step  over  the  threshold 
of  time  into  the  boundless  space  of  eternity,  he  uttered,  in  dying 
accents,  yet  with  an  eloquence  more  persuasive  and  impressive  than 
ever,  these  words:  "Do  not  let  the  civil-rights  bill  fail!" 

How  remarkable  the  connecting  incidents  of  his  history!  This  is 
particularly  apparent  when  we  recall  the  fact  that  he  began  as  an 
advocate  of  human  rights,  continued,  through  an  eventful  career,  the 
same,  and  closing  his  last  hours  on  earth,  facing  the  judgment-seat 
of  the  very  God,  he  looked  back  for  a  moment  and  repeated  these 
words,  which  will  be  ever  memorable,  "Do  NOT  LET  THE  CIVIL- 
RIGHTS  BILL  FAIL!" 

This  sentence,  we  trust,  will  prove  more  potent  and  availing  in 
securing  equality  before  the  law  for  all  men  than  any  of  his  former 
efforts.  This  is  not  the  proper  time,  neither  is  the  occasion  propi 
tious,  for  further  comment  on  that  dying  appeal.  I  therefore  with 
trembling  hands  and  a  grateful  heart  lay  it  gently  in  the  lap  of  the 
muses,  that  it  may  be  wrought  into  imperishable  history  as  an  addi 
tional  evidence  of  his  sincerity  in  life  and  his  devotion  to  the  grand 
principle  of  equal  rights  even  in  the  embrace  of  death.  He  can 
never  be  repaid  for  the  services  he  has  rendered  the  Republic.  No 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  CHARLES  SUMNER.      79 

libation,  adoration,  or  sacrifice  can  equal  the  beneficence  and  magni 
tude  of  the  services  he  has  rendered  his  country  and  mankind. 

As  for  my  race  and  me,  his  memory  will  ever  be  precious  to  us. 
We  will  embalm  it  among  the  choicest  gems  of  our  recollection. 

Yes; 

"  Let  laurels,  drenched  in  pure  Parnassian  dews, 
Reward  his  memory,  dear  to  every  muse, 
Who,  with  a  courage  of  unshaken  root, 
In  honor's  field  advancing  his  firm  foot, 
Plants  it  upon  the  line  that  Justice  draws, 
And  will  prevail  or  perish  in  her  cause. 
'Tis  to  the  virtues  of  such  men  man  owes 
His  portion  in  the  good  that  Heaven  bestows." 

Now,  sir,  my  grateful  task  is  done.  This  humble  but  heartfelt 
tribute  I  lay  at  the  base  of  the  broken  column  in  token  of  him  who 
was  an  eminent  statesmen,  renowned  philanthropist,  and  devoted 
friend  to  the  friendless.  "  May  he  rest  in  peace." 


ADDRESS  OF    MR.   J)AWES,   OF  ^MASSACHUSETTS. 

Mr.  SPEAKER  :  It  is  from  no  lack  of  eulogy  or  tribute  already  fitly 
spoken  by  stricken  Massachusetts  that  I  seek  to  be  heard  on  this 
occasion.  But,  longer  than  any  other  of  her  Representatives  here  at 
the  Capitol,  it  has  been  my  good  fortune  to  have  been  associated 
with  Mr.  SUMNER  in  the  public  service  and  to  stand  by  him  as  a 
colleague  in  the  representation  of  that  State.  He  had  served  a  full 
term  in  the  Senate  when  I  entered  this  House  more  than  seventeen 
years  ago.  I  had  met  him  here  in  his  very  first  session,  which  was 
in  fact  the  commencement  of  his  public  life;  for  that  public  life,  when 
measured  by  the  limitation  of  years,  began  and  ended  with  his  ser 
vice  as  a  Senator  of  the  United  States  from  Massachusetts.  No 
man  can  justly  estimate  that  great  public  career  which  has  so  sud 
denly  and  sadly  closed,  who  fails  to  comprehend  the  times  which 


8o  ADDRESS     OF     MR.     DAWES     ON     THE 

gave  it  birth  and  the  events  out  of  which  its  grand  proportions  have 
been  rounded  into  matchless  perfection  and  power.  How  much  they 
developed  him,  and  he  them,  belongs  to  the  historian  and  biographer 
and  not  to  the  eulogist. 

The  life  and  times  of  CHARLES  SUMNER  will  be  a  chapter  in  the 
world's  history,  standing  out  all  alone  and  by  itself.  To  the  latest 
day  that  it  will  be  read  of  men  there  will  be  found  in  it  nothing  ordi 
nary,  but,  from  its  inception  to  its  close,  everything  was  cast  in  a 
mold  which  had  no  prototype,  and  on  a  scale  by  which  nothing  else 
has  been  measured.  If  we  go  back  from  the  grand  consummation 
to  the  beginning,  there  will  be  found  the  same  extraordinary  condi 
tions  which  have  attended  every  step  of  his  great  career  upward  and 
onward  to  its  end.  He  had  never  held  public  office  till  he  entered 
the  Senate  Chamber  in  December,  1851.  Calhoun  had  died  in  the 
previous  year,  and  both  Clay  and  Webster  in  the  year  which  fol 
lowed.  As  Mr.  SUMNER  entered  the  arena  made  illustrious  by  the 
great  struggles  of  the  giants  of  that  day,  and  sought  his  own  position 
in  coming  conflicts,  Mr.  Benton  said  to  him  : 

"  You  have  come  upon  the  stage  too  late,  sir;  all  our  great  men 
have  passed  away.  Mr.  Calhoun  and  Mr.  Clay  and  Mr.  Webster 
are  gone.  Not  only  have  the  great  men  passed  away,  but  the  great 
issues  too,  raised  from  our  form  of  government,  and  of  deepest  inter 
est  to  its  founders  and  their  immediate  descendants,  have  been  settled 
also.  The  last  of  these  was  the  National  Bank,  and  that  has  been 
overthrown  forever.  Nothing  is  left  you,  sir,  but  puny  sectional 
questions  and  petty  strifes  about  slavery  and  fugitive-slave  laws 
involving  no  national  interests."  » 

How  limited  is  human  vision!  The  great  men,  and  the  then  great 
issues  with  which  they  wrestled,  filled,  as  they  were  receding  from  his 
view,  the  whole  horizon  of  a  statesman  whose  own  participation  in 
public  affairs  covered  in  that  very  forum  the  unparalleled  period  of 
thirty  years.  But  as  men  sometimes  build  better  than  they  know, 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  CHARLES  SUMNER.      8l 

so  more  often  do  they  build  in  a  way  and  tread  a  path  they  know 
not  of. 

Calhoun,  and  Clay,  and  Webster,  did,  indeed,  pass  away.  But 
the  sun  which  seemed  to  set  with  them  rose  again,  almost  simulta 
neously,  with  a  new  and  a  grander  glory.  And  there  was  no  night. 
Seward  and  Chase  and  SUMNER  stood  up  in  the  places  made  vacant 
by  those  mighty  intellects.  And  issues  more  momentous  and  far- 
reaching  than  ever  before  confronted  statesmanship  sprung  up  under 
their  very  feet,  and  out  of  the  ashes  of  struggles  vainly  supposed  to 
have  become  extinct. 

The  world's  history  furnishes  no  parallel  to  the  pages  which  shall 
truthfully  chronicle  the  character  and  consequences  of  the  conflicts 
into  which  slavery  and  fugitive-slave  laws  hurled  the  nation  almost 
from  the  hour  of  this  lamentation  over  repose.  And  the  young  Sen 
ator  from  Massachusetts  had  no  occasion  to  wait  for  opportunity.  He 
was  summoned  to  the  very  front  of  the  conflict,  and,  without  hesita 
tion  or  delay,  took  the  position  which  conviction  of  duty  as  well  as 
public  exigency  assigned  him.  If,  therefore,  it  had  been  permitted  to 
Mr.  SUMNER,  standing  at  the  goal  and  looking  back  along  the  years 
of  his  labor,  with  all  that  increased  knowledge  and  wider  experience, 
that  wealth  of  philanthropy  and  expansion  of  heart  which  crowned 
his  last  days — had  it  then  been  permitted  him  to  choose,  could  he 
have  selected  a  moment  more  fit  or  crowded  with  grander  opportu 
nities  for  the  enlistment  of  his  vast  and  varied  powers  than  the  one 
which  called  him  to  his  work?  Hardly  had  he  entered  upon  it  be 
fore  he  received  upon  his  own  person  the  concentrated  malignity  of 
that  barbarous  system  of  society  with  which  he  grappled,  in  blows 
the  effects  of  which  never  left  him,  but  which,  failing  to  silence,  con 
secrated  him  to  the  sublime  mission  he  so  grandly  filled. 

That  work  thus  begun  had  many  phases,  and  led  him  along  many 
ways  which  sometimes,  for  the  moment,  seemed  devious,  and  which 
ofttimes  compelled  him  to  invoke  instrumentalities  pronounced  doubt- 


82  ADDRESS     OF     MR.     DAWES     ON     THE 

ful  by  the  bystander.  But  all  the  while  it  grew  upon  his  hands — it 
broadened  and  it  deepened — towering  above  and  dwarfing  all  other 
work  which  fell  to  the  lot  of  other  statesmen.  Grand  in  its  very  sim 
plicity,  sublime  in  its  very  comprehensiveness,  it  enlisted  the  noblest 
aspirations  of  the  statesman  and  lifted  his  whole  being  into  an  atmos 
phere  and  life  and  vigor  all  his  own. 

ABSOLUTE  HUMAN  EQUALITY  secured,  assured,  and  invulnerable, 
was  the  work  to  which  with  a  baptism  of  blood  and  suffering  he  con 
secrated  all  his  powers,  all  his  life,  and  all  his  hopes.  In  that  work 
he  himself  grew  great.  Around  about  it,  as  a  center,  all  the  attri 
butes  of  his  mind  and  elements  of  his  character,  called  into  active 
service  and  put  to  constant  task,  were  developed,  till  like  the  one 
muscle  of  the  blacksmith's  right  arm  they  attained  a  growth  and 
strength  unlike  all  others. 

He  was  an  eloquent  man.  But  through  all  his  rhetoric  gleamed 
the  battle-ax,  cleaving  the  chains  of  the  slave  and  beating  down  the 
hoary  head  of  caste.  His  orations  were  not  set  with  diamonds  nor 
decked  with  flowers,  but  they  thundered  along  the  unbending  track 
of  logic  irresistible  and  crushing.  They  had  one  purpose,  the  con 
summation  of  his  life-work,  and  he  in  them  marshaled  the  whole 
artillery  of  rhetoric  and  of  speech  for  the  assault.  Learning  he 
acquired  as  no  other  man  in  public  life,  but  he  devoted  it  all  to  this 
his  one  great  struggle;  and  while  he  levied  upon  ancient  lore  and 
modern  research  alike  for  illustration,  for  argument,  for  admonition, 
and  for  encouragement,  it  was  only  as  for  so  many  recruits  to  the 
forces  he  commanded  in  a  life-campaign  against  human  bondage. 
Thus  it  is  that  his  public  addresses,  with  few  exceptions,  stand  as 
monuments,  both  of  his  own  power  as  an  orator  and  of  the  trans 
cendent  work  to  which  his  whole  life  had  been  set  apart.  Yet  on 
those  rare  occasions  when  he  permitted  himself  as  if  in  relaxation  to 
indulge  in  current  debate  or  in  popular  address,  he  has  left  ample 
evidence  that  his  mind  was  richly  endowed  with  all  those  rare  gifts 


LIFE   AND    CHARACTER   OF    CHARLES    SUMNER.  83 

of  oratory  which  have  in  all  times  charmed,  instructed,  and  swayed 
the  popular  mind.  Some  of  these  orations  are  masterly  productions, 
of  wide-spread  fame. 

To  speak  of  the  work  itself  to  which  Mr.  SUMNER  set  apart  his  life, 
and  for  which  he  laid  it  down,  would  be  to  attempt  not  only  the 
history  of  his  country  from  his  entrance  into  public  life  to  the  hour 
when  his  labors  ceased,  but  also  that  of  human  rights  and  human 
equality  the  world  over.  This  cannot  be  attempted  here.  Happily 
it  is  not  needed  to  complete  the  duty  of  the  hour.  That  work,  once 
derided,  denounced,  scoffed  at,  and  spit  upon,  has  now  conquered  all 
opposition  and  to-day  commands  a  support  well  nigh  universal. 
There  remains  no  forum  in  which  its  justice  is  debated,  and  no  home 
or  heart  so  lowly  that  its  efficacy  does  not  reach  it.  It  was  not  per 
mitted  him  to  see  the  formal  enactment  of  a  civil-rights  bill  he  had 
so  long  labored  and  waited  for.  But  he  knew  that  this  key-stone  of 
the  grand  arch  was  already  fitted  to  its  place.  What  he  suffered, 
what  he  sacrificed,  what  he  lifted  and  carried  to  the  end  of  all  things 
on  earth  to  him,  in  the  hope  that  his  own  work  might  be  completed 
by  his  own  hand,  cannot  now  be  put  in  words. 

I  have  said  that  Mr.  SUMNER  was  sometimes  misunderstood.  I 
speak  not  now  of  that  common  lot  of  public  men  which  subjects 
them  to  the  misrepresentations  and  denunciations  of  opponents  often 
as  indiscriminate  as  unjust.  There  is  a  more  trying  ordeal,  when  the 
vision  of  friends  becomes  dim,  and  familiar  faces  turn  away  for  a  time 
in  doubt  and  distrust.  Then  the  statesman  who  is  faithful  to  his  con 
victions  will  wait  patiently  and  silently  in  the  path  of  duty  till,  the 
mist  lifting  and  the  light  breaking  in,  the  blinded  see  again  the  out 
line  of  that  pathway  and  hail  anew  his  advancing  footsteps.  Thus 
recently  his  own  beloved  Commonwealth,  proud  and  long-trusting  as 
she  is,  yet  for  a  moment  losing  her  vision  in  a  bewildering  twilight, 
turned  her  face  away  from  Mr.  SUMNER  and  his  work.  Not  a  word 
of  complaint  fell  from  his  lips.  Conscious  of  a  lofty  and  noble  aspi- 


ADDRESS     OF     MR.     POTTER    ON     THE 


ration,  and  with  an  unfaltering  faith  that  time  would  bring  him  vin 
dication,  he  waited  patiently  for  the  dawn  of  a  brighter  day  and  the 
opening  of  a  clearer  vision.  They  came  at  last,  but  only  just  in  time 
to  save  her,  in  this  her  day  of  mourning,  the  added  pang  of  unatoned 
injustice. 

I  have  no  space  to  speak  of  those  varied  accomplishments,  that 
wealth  of  knowledge,  and  that  kindliness  of  heart  which  were  the 
charm  of  his  social  life.  But  I  desire  to  put  on  record  my  deep  obli 
gations  for  an  unbroken  friendship  of  seventeen  years,  begun  in  a 
common  public  service,  and  interrupted  only  by  that  great  event 
which  has  alike  crushed  private  friendships  and  social  ties,  and 
brought  irreparable  loss  upon  the  public  service,  the  country  and 
mankind. 

Mr.  SUMNER  reared  his  own  monument  and  has  left  it  complete. 
It  will  stand  peerless  through  all  the  ages  that  free  government  and 
human  equality  shall  exist  on  the  earth.  An  enslaved  race,  lifted  to 
freedom,  to  citizenship,  and  to  equal  rights,  will  crown  it  with  the 
garlands  of  fresh  effort  and  victorious  struggle  toward  a  completed 
manhood.  The  Commonwealth  whose  son  he  was,  and  whose  com 
mission  he  bore,  will  cherish  tenderly  his  memory,  and  point  proudly 
to  the  name  which  is  at  once  history  and  inspiration. 


ADDRESS  OF    MR.   POTTER,  OF  NEW   YORK. 

Mr.  SPEAKER:  But  that  I  have  been  requested  to  do  so,  I  should 
be  unwilling  to  detain  the  House  by  adding  any  words  of  mine  to 
the  general  expression  of  regret  at  the  great  national  loss  we  all  so 
deeply  deplore. 

My  acquaintance  with  Mr.  SUMNER,  sir,  only  began  during  the 
Forty-first  Congress.  I  was  never  intimate  with  him.  But  when  I 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  CHARLES  SUMNER.      85 

first  met  him  he  spoke  to  me  of  my  father,  whom  he  had  known,  with 
such  warmth  and  feeling  as  always  endeared  him  to  me.  I  some 
times  had  the  pleasure  of  seeing  him  at  my  house,  sometimes  of  visit 
ing  him  at  his.  Those  great  powers  and  acquirements  which  made 
him  so  distinguished  in  public  life,  united  with  his  large  experience, 
ripe  learning,  and  varied  cultivation  to  make  him  charming  in  private 
life.  To  me  he  seemed  never  more  so  than  in  his  own  house,  where 
he  had  collected  about  him  so  many  souvenirs  of  travel  and  of  taste, 
and  was  surrounded  by  so  much  that  was  best  in  literature  and  art 
and  culture.  His  grand  presence,  his  manners,  always,  so  far  as  I 
observed,  dignified  but  courteous,  his  recollections  rich  in  knowledge 
of  books,  of  men,  and  of  events,  his  independence  of  thought  and  gifts 
of  expression,  all  served  to  make  me  recall  him  as  one  of  the  most 
distinguished  and  impressive  men  it  was  ever  my  privilege  to  meet. 

Mr.  SUMNER  began  public  life  with  strong  convictions;  convictions 
in  which  he  was  supported  by  the  sympathy  of  his  people  and  the 
action  of  his  State.  They  were  convictions  that  brought  him  into 
bitter  and  long-continued  conflict  with  the  leading  men  of  the  day — 
a  conflict  which  ended  only  with  the  changes  wrought  by  the  late 
civil  war,  and  the  intensity  of  which  may  well  have  tended  to  limit 
the  nature  and  range  of  his  efforts  and  services.  That  throughout 
this  conflict  he  bore  himself  earnestly,  boldly,  and  efficiently,  with  an 
entire  devotion  to  his  convictions  and  an  honorable  disregard  of  per 
sonal  consequences,  even  those  who  differed  from  him  admit;  and 
that  in  the  end  he  was  not  wanting,  either  in  a  large  liberality  or  in  a 
magnanimity  alike  generous  and  wise,  all  should  gratefully  remember. 

With  Mr.  SUMNER'S  training  and  powers  there  were  many  walks  of 
usefulness  and  success  open  to  him ;  but  he  preferred  giving  up  the 
profession  he  had  so  well  begun,  to  devote  himself  through  life  to  the 
public  service.  After  long  years  of  arduous  and  important  labor  he 
died,  leaving  behind  him  but  a  slender  estate,  having  received  for  all 
his  services  no  other  reward  than  the  good  he  had  achieved  and  the 


86  ADDRESS     OF     MR.     POTTER     ON     THE 

honor  which  attended  it.  Although  he  founded  and  built  up  a  great 
and  successful  party,  no  man  ever  accused  him  of  profiting  by  his 
pursuit  of  politics.  His  name  was  connected  with  no  job,  mixed 
with  no  share  in  doubtful  profits,  stained  by  no  scandal.  Called 
away  suddenly  in  all  the  fullness  of  his  powers,  so  that  the  very  day 
before  his  death  he  seemed  to  me  as  grand,  as  useful,  and  as  genial 
as  ever,  he  left  public  life  as  he  entered  it,  with  clean  hands  and  un 
sullied  name. 

Such  service  is  always  patriotic  and  useful.  But  as  the  country  in 
creases,  and  its  numbers  and  interests  become  greater  and  more  con 
flicting,  the  need  for  men  of  intelligence  and  culture  willing  to  give 
their  attention  to  public  affairs  without  personal  profit  increases  also. 
In  a  small  and  sparse  community  government  is  easy;  but  when 
numbers  grow  great  and  men  crowd  upon  each  other,  so  that  each 
must  surrender  to  others  some  portion  of  his  natural  rights,  the  diffi 
culties  of  government  begin.  With  our  increasing  wealth  and  grow 
ing  population  and  crowded  cities  and  varied  industries,  our  need  of 
men  willing  and  able  to  permanently  devote  themselves,  without 
hope  of  gain,  to  the  duties  of  government,  becomes  yearly  more  and 
more  pressing. 

All  of  that  this  distinguished  man  did.  With  a  fidelity  worthy  of 
every  praise,  with  a  diligence  not  exceeded  by  any  man  in  public  life, 
for  more  than  twenty  years  he  gave  up  his  great  powers  and  learn 
ing  and  acquirements  to  the  public  service  with  a  purity,  a  zeal,  and 
an  ability  which,  however  men  may  differ  as  to  the  soundness  or 
breadth  of  his  views,  entitle  him  to  the  honor  and  the  praise  of  all, 
whatever  their  political  faith,  who  respect  patriotic  and  distinguished 
service.  For,  Mr.  Speaker,  in  a  nation  so  vast  as  this  men  must 
needs  differ,  and  differ  widely,  in  respect  of  government;  and  the  citi 
zen  who  gives  to  the  nation  his  best  service,  according  to  the  light 
that  he  has,  does  all  that  is  permitted  to  him,  and  deserves,  indeed, 
well  of  his  country. 


LIFE    AND    CHARACTER   OF    CHARLES    SUMNER.  87 

Mr. "SUMMER'S  share  in  public  life  was  during  a  time  of  conflict 
and  revolution,  followed  happily  by  peace  and  almost  general  mate 
rial  prosperity;  but  followed,  too,  by  circumstances  which  call  now, 
as  much,  perhaps,  as  ever,  for  large  and  statesmanlike  qualities,  for 
careful  consideration  of  the  true  principles  of  government  and  of 
those  changes  in  our  system  which  the  altered  political  and  physical 
condition  of  the  country  have  made  necessary.  That  great  Com 
monwealth  which  so  honored  him,  and  which  he  so  long  and  so 
faithfully  represented,  will,  indeed,  be  fortunate  if  she  shall  find  other 
sons  ready  to  worthily  bear  up  the  torch  this  great  Senator  held  so 
long  aloft  to  light  the  way  for  the  national  progress,  and  which  at 
the  last  he  let  fall  only  with  his  life. 


ADDRESS  OF  J&R.  J^ELLEY,  OF  PENNSYLVANIA. 

Mr.  SPEAKER:  When,  on  the  4th  of  July,  1861,  I  first  took  the 
oath  of  office  as  a  member  of  Congress,  my  then  venerable  colleague, 
the  late  Thaddeus  Stevens,  was  the  acknowledged  leader  of  the 
House.  He  had  been  a  life-long  foe  to  slavery ;  and  such  was  his 
hostility  to  the  spirit  of  caste,  that  he  was  unwilling  that  his  pro 
test  against  it  should  terminate  with  his  life,  and  by  provisions  in  his 
will  directed  that  his  body  should  be  interred  in  an  obscure  cemetery 
in  the  suburbs  of  the  city  he  had  so  long  represented,  and  that  his 
resting-place  should  be  marked  by  a  simple  stone  bearing  these  char 
acteristic  words : 

"  I  repose  in  this  quiet  and  secluded  spot,  not  from  any  natural 
preference  for  solitude,  but  finding  other  cemeteries  limited  by  charter 
rules  as  to  race,  I  have  chosen  it  that  I  might  be  enabled  to  illustrate 
in  my  death  the  principles  which  I  have  advocated  throughout  a  long 
life — equality  of  man  before  his  Creator." 

Owen  Lovejoy,  whose  moral  heroism  had  long  commanded  my 


ADDRESS     OF     MR.     KELLEY     ON     THE 


admiration,  was  the  member  of  the  House  for  whose  name  I  listened 
with  most  interest  when  the  roll  was  called,  that  I  might  see  the 
person  of  him  who  had  with  such  burning  eloquence  defied  the  slave- 
power  in  this  House  and  elsewhere.  John  P.  Hale  and  CHARLES 
SUMNER  were  then  in  the  Senate,  from  which  William  H.  Seward  and 
Salmon  P.  Chase  had  recently  withdrawn — the  former  to  enter  upon 
the  duties  of  the  office  of  Secretary  of  State,  and  the  latter  upon  those 
of  Secretary  of  the  Treasury.  None  of  them  are  now  among  the  liv 
ing  ;  each,  having  closed  the  work  appointed  to  him,  has  gone  to  his 
reward.  Great  and  good  as  these  men  were,  they  were  not  faultless. 
He  who  had  been  would  not  have  been  a  man.  But  the  world  is 
better  for  the  life  of  each  of  them.  Their  labors  and  example  im 
proved  our  moral  and  political  atmosphere,  and  though  they  have 
been  withdrawn  from  our  presence,  their  influence  is  scarcely  less 
potent  now  than  it  was  when  they  responded  to  the  call  of  President 
Lincoln,  and  in  their  respective  spheres  devoted  themselves  to  the 
maintenance  of  the  Army  and  Navy  that  were  to  suppress  the  rebel 
lion  and  invest  with  all  the  rights  pertaining  to  American  citizenship 
the  lowliest  slave  in  the  land. 

Mr.  SUMNER  was  the  last  survivor  of  this  illustrious  group.  He 
hoped  for  the  early  passage  of  a  bill  the  provisions  of  which  should 
enable  all  men  to  maintain  and  enforce  their  civil  rights  as  the  com 
pletion  of  their  joint  life-work.  Had  he  lived  to  see  such  a  bill 
enrolled  among  our  statutes  he  might  well  have  expressed  the  com 
pleteness  of  his  gratification  in  the  often-quoted  exclamation  of 
Simeon  of  old. 

How  conspicuous  a  part  Mr.  SUMNER  took  in  the  legislation  of 
Congress  during  his  long  senatorial  career  others  have  told.  It  was 
such  as  had  been  permitted  to  few  men,  and  yet  I  have  often  thought 
that  he  would  have  more  largely  affected  the  sentiment  and  conscience 
of  the  country  had  he  never  been  involved  in  the  active  and  exhaust 
ing  duties  of  the  Senate.  It  has  seemed  to  me  that  he  was  too  much 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  CHARLES  SUMNER.      89 

devoted  to  letters  and  too  intensely  wedded  to  abstract  sentiment  to 
be  either  an  influential  statesman  or  a  successful  politician ;  that  -he 
was  too  cosmopolitan  in  his  statesmanship  to  influence  current 
policies,  and  too  little  of  a  politician  to  be  a  successful  statesman. 
The  readiness  with  which  he  accepted  broad  and  generous  proposi 
tions,  which  in  terms  promised  beneficent  results,  led  him  to  disre 
gard  the  influence  of  details  which  in  the  complicated  web  and  woof 
of  human  life  often  thwart  the  application  of  general  laws ;  and  I 
have  never  doubted  that  the  prevalence  of  his  theories  of  trade  and 
finance — free-trade  and  the  limitation  of  the  medium  of  exchange  to 
a  volume  of  paper-money  so  restricted  that  it  might  ever  be  inter 
changeable  with  gold — would,  while  paralyzing  the  energy  of  the 
North,  have  reduced  the  plantation  hands  of  the  South  to  a  degra 
dation  in  freedom  from  which  the  interests  of  their  owners  had  pro 
tected  them  in  slavery.  They  are  the  policies  which  have  been 
applied  by  England  to  British  India,  and  which,  by  destroying  its 
ancient  and  diversified  industries,  have  from  time  to  time  depopu 
lated  its  most  fertile  districts  by  famine  and  the  diseases  consequent 
upon  long-continued  hunger.  As  a  teacher — through  the  press,  the 
foium,  and  the  rostrum — Mr.  SUMMER'S  illustrations  of  great  prin 
ciples  would  have  been  free  from  the  suspicion  of  partisanship  and  he 
unembarrassed  by  the  personal  strife  which  is  inseparable  from  a 
parliamentary  career. 

Permit  me  in  support  of  this  suggestion  to  refer  to  but  two  of  his 
early  addresses,  each  of  which  produced  controlling  and  life-long 
impressions  on  my  mind. 

It  is  now  nearly  thirty  years  since  I  read  an  occasional  address  by 
Mr.  SUMNER,  which  had  been  delivered  on  the  4th  of  July,  1845, 
before  the  municipal  authorities  of  the  city  of  Boston.  His  subject 
was  "The  true  grandeur  of  nations,"  and  I  think  it  is  not  saying  too 
much  to  express  the  belief  that  the  power  and  amplitude  of  illus 
tration  with  which  he  treated  the  subject  did  much  to  prepare  the 


90  ADDRESS     OF     MR.     KELLEY     ON     THE 

people  of  Great  Britain  and  the  United  States  for  the  settlement  by 
arbitration  rather  than  by  trial  of  battle  of  the  difficulties  that  grew 
out  of  our  late  civil  war.  The  discussion  of  his  theme  was  purely 
abstract ;  it  was  free  from  party  bias  or  personal  allusion,  and  well 
calculated  to  captivate  the  mind  of  every  generous  youth  into  whose 
hands  it  might  come. 

The  other  instance  to  which  I  refer  occurred  but  a  few  years 
later,  when  Mr.  SUMNER  appeared  before  the  supreme  court  of 
Massachusetts,  December  4,  1849,  as  counsel  for  Sarah  C.  Roberts, 
a  colored  child  but  five  years  old,  who  by  her  next  friend  had  sued 
the  city  of  Boston  for  damages  on  account  of  a  refusal  to  receive  her 
into  one  of  the  public  schools.  The  question  as  stated  by  him  was, 
"  Can  any  discrimination  on  account  of  color  or  race  be  made  under 
the  constitution  and  laws  of  Massachusetts  among  the  children  enti 
tled  to  the  benefit  of  our  public  schools?"  In  opening  his  argument 
he  said  to  the  court: 

"  This  little  child  asks  at  your  hands  her  personal  rights.  So  doing, 
she  calls  upon  you  to  decide  a  question  which  concerns  the  personal 
rights  of  other  colored  children;  which  concerns  the  fundamental 
principles  of  human  rights;  which  concerns  the  Christian  character 
of  this  community.  Such  parties,  and  such  interests,  so  grand  and 
varied,  may  justly  challenge  your  most  earnest  attention." 

Close  as  was  the  legal  argument  and  ample  as  were  the  authorities 
cited,  the  speech  was  read  most  widely  by  the  unprofessional  public, 
and  the  freedom  from  caste  which  characterizes  the  schools  of  the 
young  States  of  the  Northwest  may  be  largely  ascribed  to  the  influ 
ence  of  this  argument  presented  to  a  bench  of  judges  in  Massachu 
setts.  Let  me  bring  it  anew  to  the  attention  of  the  public  by  making 
a  brief  citation  or  two,  which  may  be  read  with  profit  in  the  practical 
discussions  of  our  day  : 

"As  the  State  receives  strength  from  the  unity  and  solidarity  of  its 
citizens  without  distinction  of  class,  so  the  school  receives  new  strength 


LIFE   AND    CHARACTER   OF    CHARLES    SUMNER.  91 

from  the  unity  and  solidarity  of  all  classes  beneath  its  roof.  In  this 
way  the  poor,  the  humble,  and  the  neglected  share  not  only  the  com 
panionship  of  their  more  favored  brethren,  but  enjoy  also  the  protec 
tion  of  their  presence,  in  drawing  toward  the  school  a  more  watchful 
superintendence.  A  degraded  or  neglected  class,  if  left  to  themselves, 
will  become  more  degraded  or  neglected.  To  him  that  hath  shall  be 
given;  and  the  world,  true  to  these  words,  turns  from  the  poor  and 
outcast  to  the  rich  and  fortunate.  It  is  the  aim  of  our  system  of 
public  schools,  by  the  blending  of  all  classes,  to  draw  upon  the  whole 
school  the  attention  which  is  too  apt  to  be  given  only  to  the  favored 
few,  and  thus  secure  the  poor  their  portion  of  the  fruitful  sunshine.  But 
the  colored  children  placed  apart  by  themselves  are  deprived  of  this 
blessing. 

"  May  it  please  your  honors,  such  are  some  of  the  things  which  it 
has  occurred  to  me  to  say  in  this  important  cause.  I  have  occupied 
much  of  your  time,  but  I  have  not  yet  exhausted  the  topics.  Still, 
which  way  soever  we  turn,  we  are  brought  back  to  one  single  propo 
sition,  the  equality  of  men  before  the  /aw.  This  stands  as  the  mighty 
guardian  of  the  rights  of  the  colored  children  in  this  case.  It  is  the 
constant,  ever-present,  tutelary  genius  of  this  Commonwealth,  frown 
ing  upon  every  privilege  of  birth,  upon  every  distinction  of  race, 
upon  every  institution  of  caste.  You  cannot  slight  it  or  avoid  it. 
You  cannot  restrain  it.  It  remains  that  you  should  welcome  it.  Do 
this,  and  your  words  will  be  a  'charter  and  freehold  of  rejoicing'  to 
a  race  which  has  earned  by  much  suffering  a  title  to  much  regard. 
Your  judgment  will  become  a  sacred  landmark,  not  in  jurisprudence 
only,  but  in  the  history  of  freedom,  giving  precious  encouragement  to 
all  the  weary  and  heavy-laden  wayfarers  in  this  great  cause.  Massa 
chusetts  will  then  through  you  have  a  fresh  title  to  regard,  and  be 
once  more,  as  in  times  past,  an  example  to  the  whole  land." 

But,  Mr.  Speaker,  grand  and  inspiring  as  were  the  utterances  of  Mr. 
SUMNER,  he  has  left  to  the  youth  of  our  country  a  heritage  more 
precious  even  than  they  in  the  story  of  his  daily  walk  in  life,  the 
excellence  of  his  habits,  his  untiring  industry,  his  love  of  art,  poetry, 
sentiment,  and  in  the  noble  aims  for  which  he  lived. 


92  ADDRESS     OF     MR.     NESMITH     ON    THE 


ADDRESS  OF    MR.    NESMITH,   OF    OREGON. 

Mr."  SPEAKER  :  To  the  tributes  inspired  by  personal  and  political 
friendship  which  are  paid  to  the  memory  of  the  illustrious  dead,  per 
mit  me  to  add  a  word  expressive  of  my  respect  for  and  appreciation 
of  the  man. 

Possibly  the  little  I  have  to  say  will  be  entitled  to  the  more  con 
sideration  from  the  fact  that  whatever  I  may  speak  in  praise  comes 
from  an  opponent  who  for  six  years  served  with  CHARLES  SUMNER 
in  the  other  end  of  the  Capitol  without  having  entertained  a  political 
sentiment  in  common  with  that  great  man.  I  can  say  that  through 
all  this  opposition  he  commanded  my  respect,  and  in  some  instances 
my  admiration.  I  recognized  in  him  an  embodiment  of  New  Eng 
land's  high  sense  of  duty.  He  always  appeared  to  me  a  pure,  single- 
hearted,  earnest  man.  While  lacking  the  enthusiasm  that  comes  of 
generous  impulse,  the  intense  earnestness  of  his  nature  produced  a 
quality  so  like  it  that  the. substitute  was  often  accepted. 

What  was  fanaticism  in  others  appeared  from  his  cultivated,  high 
position  as  patriotism,  and,  although  a  refined  John  Brown,  he  threw 
about  his  efforts  such  a  charm  of  learning,  such  graces  of  rhetoric, 
that  it  seems  a  wrong  to  class  him  with  the  coarse  fanatic  who 
molded  into  bullets  the  feelings  and  words  the  orator  uttered  in  the 
Senate. 

John  Brown  was  CHARLES  SUMNER  reduced  to  practical  action, 
and  both  represented  the  rock-ribbed  and  iron  bound  land  where  duty 
takes  the  place  of  impulse. 

I  am  unacquainted  with  the  early  history  of  CHARLES  SUMNER, 
beyond  the  outline  of  his  public  career,  estimating  him  as  I  did  from 
a  stand-point  that  made  me  almost  impartial.  I  have  always  been 
impressed  with  the  belief  that  much  of  his  marked  advocacy  of  equal 
rights  grew  out  of  his  personal  experience.  Dr.  Johnson  tells  us  that 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  CHARLES  SUMNER.      93 

"  in  a  majority  of  instances  cruelty  is  but  another  name  for  igno 
rance."  A  man  therefore  to  appreciate  oppression,  as  CHARLES 
SUMMER  seemed  to  do,  must  have  felt  keenly  the  wrongs  of  oppres 
sion.  We  know  that  upon  his  first  appearance  in  public  life  he  took 
up  the  cry  of  the  oppressed  that  found  words  in  his  last  utterances. 
We  know  that  this  was  brought  home  to  him  in  the  saddest  and  most 
painful  manner  during  his  career  in  the  Senate  before  the  war,  and  I 
am  of  the  opinion  that  it  was  his  experience  long  before  he  entered 
public  life.  We  all  know  that  there  is  no  part  of  the  globe  where 
caste  has  a  more  iron  rule  than  in  New  England,  and  I  can  well  im 
agine  the  early  struggles  of  a  sensitive  and  cultivated  mind  against 
its  despotism. 

He  had  a  quality  for  which  the  world  never  gave  him  credit,  and 
that  was  high  courage.  He  fought  bravely  the  social  tyranny  he 
suffered  from  in  his  own  land,  and  he  fought  with  still  higher  cour 
age  what  to  him  was  the  cruelist  despotism  known  to  humanity,  and 
as  he  fought  his  earnestness  grew  more  intense.  It  was  not  that  he 
felt  for  the  down-trodden  negro  whose  cause  he  advocated,  but  that 
his  manhood  resented  the  cruel  injustice  of  a  dominant  class. 

And  here,  sir,  I  wish  to  call  attention  to  that  quality  in  Senator 
SUMNER  that  is  in  him  so  little  understood  or  appreciated.  He  came 
to  the  Senate  of  the  United  States  the  avowed  advocate  of  the  slave, 
and  the  uncompromising,  bitter  opponent  of  the  master.  Entirely 
alone,  backed  up  by  no  great  party,  unaided  by  a  solitary  voice  of 
friendship,  he  bearded  the  lion  in  his  den.  At  that  time,  sir,  it  was 
not  considered  even  respectable  to  be  such  an  advocate,  and  the 
man  who  voluntarily  thrust  himself  into  such  a  position  made  the 
tender  of  open  hostility  to  nearly  all  the  rest  of  his  countrymen, 
while  he  carried  his  own  life  in  his  hand.  You  may  call  this  the 
foolhardiness  born  of  fanaticism,  but  I  recognize  in  it  an  example  of 
moral  and  physical  courage  combined  such  as  the  world  has  rarely 
witnessed. 


94  ADDRESS     OF     MR.     NE  SMITH     ON     THE 

Physical  courage  is  an  inherent  quality  in  the  most  of  our  race, 
and  there  are  but  few  men  who  would  not  prefer  to  mount  the  deadly 
breach  or  march  to  the  cannon's  mouth  rather  than  suffer  the  re 
proaches,  the  contempt,  the  obloquy,  and  the  scorn  of  their  country 
men.  CHARLES  SUMNER  led  the  forlorn  hope  in  practically  facing 
all  these  dangers  combined. 

We  must  all  remember  who  have  read,  and  certainly  no  one  can 
forget  who  witnessed  the  scene,  the  chivalrous  effort  that  led  to  an 
assault  upon  him  in  his  seat  in  the  Senate  Chamber.  A  gentleman, 
belonging  to  the  democratic  party,  who  happened  to  be  upon  the 
floor  of  the  Senate  at  the  time,  tells  me  that  it  was  almost  melodra 
matic  in  its  effect.  In  that  great  historic  hall  of  eloquence,  the  old 
Senate  Chamber,  there  were  present  the  assembled  legislative  wis 
dom  of  the  nation,  and  while  all  appeared  calm  and  peaceful,  under 
lying  this  smooth  and  placid  exterior  was  that  deadly  animosity 
which  a  few  years  later  culminated  in  the  most  sanguinary  civil  war 
that  a  nation  ever  experienced. 

When  CHARLES  SUMNER  addressed  the  President,  he  must  have 
felt  all  that  the  scowling  eyes  and  sneering  lips  conveyed  to  him.  If 
he  looked  around  for  sympathy  or  support,  it  was  to  find  a  few  cow 
ering  friends  utterly  appalled  at  his  audacity;  and  yet  he  was  as 
cool,  self-possessed,  and  brave  as  if  he  had  at  his  back  an  army  of 
supporters.  His  audacity,  manly  person,  youthful  appearance,  and 
courage  won  for  him  sympathy  akin  to  admiration  from  his  enemies, 
shown  in  the  profound  attention  they  gave  to  his  bitter  utterances 
and  stinging  invective.  Those  who  witnessed  the  scene,  or  have 
read  of  it,  remember  the  storm  of  wrath  and  indignation  that  was 
poured  out  upon  the  head  of  the  young  Senator,  and  we  know  how 
he  arose  again  and  again  with  undaunted  courage  to  repel  the 
attack. 

And  subsequently  to  this  scene,  so  feebly  described,  another  mani 
festation  of  this  sublime  quality  of  high  physical  courage  was  exhib- 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  CHARLES  SUMNER.     95 

ited  when  he  was  subjected  to  the  most  severe  and  excruciating 
surgical  tortures,  and  bore  them  with  the  uncomplaining  fortitude 
and  stoical  indifference  of  the  North  American  savage. 

Let  us,  then,  Mr.  Speaker,  give  him  our  admiration  for  the  high 
qualities  of  which  in  public  estimation  he  has  been  so  long  deprived. 

Learned,  eloquent,  pure,  and  earnest,  he  had  not,  in  my  estima 
tion,  any  claims  to  statesmanship.  This  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  he 
closed  his  public  career  at  the  very  moment  he  secured  a  triumph  of 
his  own  all-engrossing  idea  some  ten  years  since.  The  fanatical 
reformer  is  seldom  a  builder ;  the  image-breaker  cannot  replace  the 
image  he  destroys.  Of  all  that  little  band  who  from  the  first  led  the 
forlorn  hope  which  ultimately  effected  the  organization  of  a  great 
political  party,  not  one  was  found  capable  of  guiding  or  controlling 
it.  They  turned  their  command  over  to  more  practical  minds  than 
CHARLES  SUMNER'S — to  men  so  eminently  practical,  that  they  not 
only  rebuilt  for  others,  but  remarkably  well  for  themselves.  It  is 
curious,  sir,  to  look  about  me  and  see  men  now  in  command  of  that 
party  that  CHARLES  SUMNER  created,  who  while  he  was  in  the 
minority  denounced  him  as  a  fanatic,  an  abolitionist,  an  enemy  of 
good  order,  of  his  country,  and  of  mankind,  but  who  now  exceed 
his  utterances  in  their  screams  for  refused  rights.  Their  conversion 
was  probably  his  most  marvelous  achievement. 

But,  sir,  had  he  possessed  the  statesman's  creative  power,  he  was 
too  pure  a  man  for  the  politics  of  our  day  and  generation.  In  his 
high  position  it  was  not  possible  for  him  to  be  the  paid  advocate;  it 
was  not  possible  for  him  to  be  the  associate  of  men  who,  while  wav 
ing  the  banner  of  freedom  with  one  hand,  stole  from  the  public 
Treasury  with  the  other.  Why,  sir,  he  was  so  pure  and  single- 
hearted  that  he  could  not  even  understand  such  characters. 

Differing  as  I  honestly  and  heartily  did  with  Mr.  SUMNER  upon 
the  great  issues  out  of  which  his  fame  grew,  I  feel  it  incumbent  upon 
myself  to  say  that,  while  my  own  opinions  upon  those  questions 


g6  ADDRESS     OF     MR.     NESMITH     ON    THE 

remain  at  variance  with  his,  I  concede  to  him  an  honesty  of  purpose 
in  urging  his  peculiar  theories  with  a  pertinacity  unparalleled  in  our 
political  history.  Defeat  strongly  inspired  him  with  renewed  energy; 
and  when  the  popular  vote  of  the  nation,  as  it  did  at  times,  con 
demned  him  and  his  cause,  he,  phoenix-like,  arose  from  the  ashes  of 
defeat  to  advocate  with  fresh  ardor  and  invigorated  courage  the 
"  equality  of  the  races  before  the  law." 

His  courage  was  of  a  higher  order  than  that  inspired  by  mere 
brute  force.  He  adhered  to  his  theories  through  contumely,  adver 
sity,  and  disgrace;  and  when  the  results  of  his  labors,  his  sufferings, 
and  his  courage  elevated  those  who  had  defamed  and  despitefully 
used  him  from  obscurity  to  power,  he  bore  their  renewed  reproaches 
with  but  slight  retaliation  or  complaint. 

In  my  humble  estimation  Mr.  SUMNER  never  appeared  to  greater 
advantage  than  when  he  magnanimously  proposed  in  the  Senate  that 
the  achievements  of  our  gallant  troops  in  an  intestine  war  should  be 
obliterated  from  their  flags.  An  envious  and  malignant  man  would 
have  desired  to  see  our  southern  brethren  humiliated  by  the  embla 
zonment  of  their  disasters  upon  that  proud  banner  which  we  all  as 
American  citizens  desire  to  hail  as  the  emblem  of  a  great  and  united 
nationality. 

The  evil  passions  growing  out  of  the  war  had  become  so  furious 
and  unreasoning  as  to  cause  his  own  State  to  condemn  his  generous 
impulses  upon  that  subject;  but  I  thank  God  that  his  last  moments 
on  earth  were  cheered  with  the  rescinding  resolutions  of  the  repre 
sentatives  of  a  people,  themselves  the  descendants  of  rebels,  who  felt, 
upon  sober  second  thought,  what  was  due  to  a  people  who  had  gal 
lantly  risked  their  lives  in  their  adherence  to  what  they  conceived  to 
be  the  principle  that  "all  just  government  is  derived  from  the  consent 
of  the  governed."  His  familiarity  with  English  history  had  demon 
strated  to  him  the  folly  of  perpetuating  hatreds  and  sanguinary  rem 
iniscences  in  a  people  who,  in  the  nature  of  things,  should  be  homo- 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  CHARLES  SUMNER.      97 

geneous.  In  the  latter  part  of  his  life  he  gave  evidence  of  his 
abhorrence  of  white  political  slavery  no  less  than  that  which  per 
tained  to  the  African. 

Mr.  Speaker,  inexorable  death  has  claimed  CHARLES  SUMNER  as 
his  own,  and  the  grave  has  closed  over  his  mortal  remains.  We 
shall  never  in  our  generation  look  upon  his  like  again,  simply  because 
there  are  no  surroundings  to  develop  such  a  character.  The  freedom 
of  the  African  is  assured,  and  it  now  remains  the  highest  duty  of  the 
statesman  to  assure  the  freedom  of  the  citizen. 

"  Peace  hath  her  victories  no  less  renowned  than  war; "  and  the 
man  who  by  persistent  direction  of  peaceful  agencies  converts  a  na 
tion  of  politicians  to  his  views  is  as  much  entitled  to  the  triumphal 
arch  as  is  the  mere  soldier  who,  by  the  unreasoning  power  of  brute 
force,  completes  a  victory  with  the  sword  and  points  to  the  hecatomb 
of  the  slain  as  his  passport  to  power.  The  saddest  thing  about 
CHARLES  SUMNER'S  life,  to  me,  is  that  he  survived  himself — that  he 
lived  to  see  other  men  occupying  the  proud  positions  and  wielding 
the  power  he  had  created,  with  no  higher  motive  prompting  them 
than  the  self-aggrandizement  to  be  found  in  wealth. 

I  have  only  hinted  at  his  faults,  few  as  they  were.  I  have  no 
heart  to  dwell  upon  his  failings.  He  had  the  egotism  of  genius  and 
the  impatience  of  fanatical  conviction.  He  may  be  said  to  have 
lived  alone,  never  knowing  pleasant  companionship,  and  meeting  the 
world  only  to  be  flattered  and  admired  or  to  be  fought.  His,  how 
ever,  were  faults  we  can  readily  forget,  and  failings  we  are  willing  to 
forgive. 

He  is  gone  from  among  us.  His  chair  in  the  Senate,  to  which  all 
eyes  were  turned  when  any  great  question  agitated  that  grave  body, 
will  never  be  filled  by  a  public  servant  more  pure  in  his  motives,  more 
elevated  and  courageous  in  his  action,  or  truer  to  his  convictions. 
Let  us  keep  his  virtues  in  remembrance.  May  his  monument  be 
of  spotless  marble,  for  it  cannot  be  purer  or  whiter  than  his  life. 


98  ADDRESS     OF      MR.     G.     F.     HOAR     ON     THE 


ADDRESS    OF   yVLR.    ja.    J?.    J-foAR,    OF    ^MASSACHUSETTS. 

Mr.  SPEAKER  :  I  should  prefer  to  leave  this  theme  to  those  of  my 
colleagues  who  have  been  longer  and  more  conspicuous  in  the  public 
service.  But  the  community  which  I  represent  was  bound  to  our 
great  Senator  by  a  tie  closer,  I  think,  than  that  of  any  other.  In  the 
city  of  Worcester  he  first  publicly  devoted  himself  to  the  great  cause 
to  which  his  life  was  consecrated.  From  that  day  to  his  death,  for 
more  than  twenty-five  years,  through  his  eventful  career,  through  all 
the  obloquy  and  strife  and  hatred  which  it  was  his  lot  to  encounter, 
that  people  have  loved  and  honored  him,  scarcely  ever  divided  from 
him  in  judgment,  never  in  principle,  never  in  affection;  and  it  seems 
to  me  fitting  that  in  this  season  of  funeral  sorrow  and  of  funeral  tri 
umph  its  voice  should  not  be  silent. 

CHARLES  SUMNER'S  public  life  was  spent  in  one  place — the  Senate 
Chamber,  and  was  devoted  to  one  cause — the  equality  of  all  men 
before  the  law.  For  that  arena  and  that  great  argument  his  first 
forty  years  must  be  considered  only  as  preparation.  He  came  to 
manhood,  leaving  Harvard  with  the  best  training  his  native  State 
had  to  bestow.  He  was  a  model  of  manly  beauty  and  of  manly 
stiength,  attracting  the  eye  in  every  assembly,  capable  of  great  ath 
letic  feats,  and  able  to  sustain  the  most  severe  and  continuous  study. 
To  the  best  American  training  he  added  what  foreign  travel  could 
give.  He  mastered  the  principal  modern  languages,  and  formed 
intimacies  with  the  distinguished  men  of  Europe,  especially  with  those 
of  his  own  profession.  He  became  a  learned  lawyer,  editing  the 
twenty  volumes  of  Vesey,  jr.,  himself  reporting  the  decisions  of  his 
friend  Judge  Story,  and  contributing  many  original  essays  to  the 
American  Jurist.  His  great  native  powers  of  oratory,  the  indispen 
sable  instruments  of  his  future  service,  he  trained  and  manifested  by 
numerous  public  addresses,  in  which,  thus  early,  he  unfolded  the 


LIFE  AND  CHARACTER  OF  CHARLES  SUMNER.     99 

principles  and  opinions  from  which  he  never  swerved.  The  full 
vigor  of  his  intellect  he  retained  till  his  death.  But  that  magnetic 
eloquence  which  inspired  and  captivated  large  masses  of  men  as  he 
molded  the  lessons  of  history,  the  ornaments  of  literature,  the  com 
mandments  of  law,  human  and  divine,  into  his  burning  and  impas 
sioned  plea  for  the  slave,  belonged  only  to  his  youth.  He  never 
fully  regained  it  after  the  assault  upon  him  in  the  Senate  Chamber. 
His  vast  learning  and  retentive  memory  were  a  marvel.  I  remember 
in  my  boyhood  hearing  an  eminent  scholar  style  him  the  encyclopae 
dia  of  Boston. 

He  was  familiar  with  all  heroic  literature.  His  style,  without 
much  variety,  reminded  you  of  some  of  the  statelier  passages  of 
Burke,  whom  in  person  he  resembled,  resembling  also  in  its  affluence 
of  citation  that  "field  of  the  cloth  of  gold,"  the  prose  of  John 
Milton. 

Old  men  who  had  trod  the  highest  paths  of  fame  recognized  the 
promise  of  the  youth  and  sought  his  companionship.  Probably  no 
young  man  in  America  ever  counted  such  a  host  of  illustrious  friends. 
Among  them  were  Kent,  the  greatest  modern  writer  on  jurisprudence, 
(unless  we  join  Kent  himself  in  preferring  Story,)  and  De  Tocqueville, 
that  wisest  of  Frenchmen,  who  has  understood  the  institutions  of 
America  better  than  any  man  since  the  men  who  builded  them,  and 
from  whom  SUMNER  received  that  maxim  in  which  he  delighted :  "  Life 
is  neither  a  pain  nor  a  pleasure,  but  a  serious  business,  which  it  is  our 
duty  to  carry  through  and  to  terminate  with  honor."  Among  them 
were  some  still  alive,  famous  in  poetry,  in  letters,  and  in  science,  whose 
unfailing  affection  cheered  the  darkest  hours  of  his  life.  Among  them 
were  four — John  Pickering,  the  illustrious  scholar,  whom  SUMNER 
called  the  leader  in  the  revival  of  learning  in  America,  comparing 
him  to  Erasmus — Washington  Allston,  Story,  and  Channing — whom 
he  commemorated  in  that  wonderful  oration  of  eulogy,  in  which, 
taking  them  as  representatives  and  examples,  he  set  forth  the  four 


100  ADDRESS     OF     MR.     G.     F.     HOAR     ON     THE 

ideals  which  he  kept  ever  before  his  own  gaze — knowledge,  justice, 
beauty,  love. 

Such  was  CHARLES  SUMNER  when  he  was  called  to  choose  his  side 
in  the  great  battle  of  which  our  nation  was  to  be  the  scene.  Never 
did  hero,  martyr,  or  saint  choose  more  bravely  or  worthily.  The 
party  to  which  he  had  belonged,  dominant  for  a  generation  in  Mas 
sachusetts,  was  just  wresting  the  national  authority  from  the  grasp  of 
its  ancient  rival.  The  victory  of  either  was  the  victory  of  slavery. 
Turning  his  back  on  the  victors,  he  chose  the  conquered  cause.  Fond 
of  power,  fitted  for  its  exercise,  he  chose  the  side  of  weakness.  Sur 
rounded  by  wealth,  he  chose  the  cause  of  the  poor.  Rich  in  friends, 
he  became  the  defender  of  the  friendless.  Favorite  of  that  cultivated 
society,  his  great  heart  went  out  in  sympathy  for  the  ignorant  and 
degraded  slave.  He  joined  himself  to  a  small  political  association, 
not  strong  enough  to  carry  three  districts  in  the  country,  who  made 
opposition  to  slavery  the  cardinal  doctrine  of  their  creed. 

The  indignation  of  Massachusetts  at  the  passage  of  the  compro 
mise  measures  of  1850,  especially  the  fugitive-slave  bill,  for  which  the 
whig  administration  of  Millard  Fillmore  was  responsible,  enabled  the 
free-soil  party,  combining  with  the  democratic  minority,  to  elect  Mr. 
SUMNER  to  the  Senate,  where  he  took  his  seat  in  1851.  From  that 
time  forth  he  was  the  undoubted  leader  of  the  political  opposition  to 
slavery.  His  speeches  stirred  the  public  heart  and  conscience  to  their 
depths,  and  were  the  arsenal  from  which  the  most  effective  arguments 
were  drawn. 

The  sure  instinct  of  slavery  did  not  err  when  it  recognized  him  as 
its  implacable  foe.  At  last  a  man  had  come  to  the  Senate  to  whom 
the  ideal  higher  law  was  real;  on  whom  threats  and  blandishments 
alike  were  lost;  who  would  not  buy  popularity  or  office;  who  would 
not  buy  success  for  his  party,  or  even  safety  and  prosperity  for  his 
country,  by  injustice.  There  was  no  mistake  about  him.  The  min 
ions  of  tyranny  sought  eagerly  for  his  destruction,  thinking  that  with 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER   OF    CHARLES    SUMNER.  IOI 

him  the  new-born  movement  for  freedom  would  perish.  But,  fools 
and  blind,  they  saw  not  that  the  eternal  forces  were  behind  him. 
They  thought  if  they  could  but  silence  that  bugle-note,  the  music  of 
liberty  would  die  out  over  the  land.  They  thought  if  they  could  but 
strike  down  that  sentinel  on  the  ramparts,  the  awakening  nation  would 
turn  itself  again  to  its  long  sleep.  They  thought  if  they  could  but 
stifle  the  clarion  voice  of  the  herald  of  the  day,  the  morning  itself 
would  not  dawn. 

The  secret  of  CHARLES  SUMNER'S  power  lay  in  two  qualities  which 
he  impressed  on  this  people  in  larger  measure  than  any  other  man  of 
his  time — his  conscientiousness  and  his  faith.  Others,  a  good  many, 
equaled  him  in  eloquence;  others,  a  few,  equaled  him  in  scholarship. 
But  he  alone  was  the  interpreter  of  the  conscience  of  this  people. 
To  every  proposition  he  applied  the  inexorable  test — is  it  right  ?  Is 
it  absolutely  just?  Unless  his  puritanic  sense  of  rectitude  was  satis 
fied  he  would  not  yield.  No  argument  of  political  expediency,  no 
whisper  of  administrative  caution,  no  deference  to  associates,  no 
regard  for  venerated  authorities,  no  consideration  of  fitness  of  occa 
sion,  no  fear  for  himself,  would  induce  him  to  abate  one  jot  of  his 
indignant  denunciation.  With  this  trait  he  could  not  be  other  than 
the  life-long  foe  of  slavery. 

There  was  no  optimism  in  his  nature.  He  never  turned  his  gaze 
away  from  evil,  or  looked  on  it  but  to  hate  it  and  to  strike  it.  But  in  the 
darkest  days  of  war,  or  those  darker  days  worse  than  war,  when  slavery 
ruled,  he  never  lost  his  sublime  faith  in  the  triumph  of  justice,  truth, 
equality,  wrought  out  in  the  Republic  by  the  power  of  a  free  people. 

This  secret  of  his  power  and  the  rule  of  his  public  life  will  be  found 
in  two  of  his  own  sentences,  one  almost  the  opening  sentence  in  his 
first  great  public  discourse,  the  other  which  I  heard  him  utter  toward 
the  close  of  life  in  a  debate  on  the  civil-rights  bill,  that  great  and 
crowning  measure  of  justice,  in  care  for  which  he  forgot  himself  in 
the  very  hour  of  death.  "  Never  aim  at  aught  which  is  not  right, 


102  ADDRESS     OF     MR.     G.     F.     HOAR     ON     THE 

persuaded  that  without  this  every  possession  will  become  an  evil  and 
a  shame."  "Trust  the  Republic,  and  the  ideas  which  are  its  strength 
and  safety." 

No  eulogy  of  CHARLES  SUMNER  will  be  complete  which  leaves  out 
his  faults.  When  common  men  die  we  may  invoke  the  adage,  "JVH 
de  mortuis  nisi  bonum"  or  utter  that  sadder  cry  of  human  frailty, 
"  Jam  pane  scpulto."  But  of  this  man  we  can  say  the  whole  truth. 
Two  grave  defects  marred  the  symmetry  of  his  moral  and  intellectual 
nature.  The  first  was  a  certain  want  of  proportion  or  perspective  in 
his  mental  vision,  which  made  him  exaggerate  the  evil  or  good  quali 
ties  of  men  whom  he  had  occasion  to  blame  or  praise,  or  the  import 
ance  of  measures  with  which  he  was  concerned.  In  saying  this  we 
should  not  forget  how  often  time  has  brought  round  the  popular 
judgment  to  his  own. 

The  other  was  a  graver  fault.  In  him  the  egotism  often  fostered 
by  a  long  senatorial  career  seems  to  have  been  natural.  He  pos 
sessed  an  inordinate  confidence  in  his  own  judgments.  He  was  in 
tolerant  of  difference  or  of  opposition.  It  was  hard  for  men  his 
equals  in  station,  themselves  accustomed  to  respect,  conscious  of 
equal  desire  for  the  general  welfare,  to  submit  to  his  impatient  and 
imperious  criticism.  What  he  saw  he  seemed  to  himself  to  see  with 
absolute  clearness  and  certainty.  He  could  not  understand  the  state 
of  mind  of  a  man  who  did  not  see  it  as  he  did.  But  this,  his  greatest 
fault,  was  a  protection  to  him  in  the  warfare  in  which  he  was  engaged. 
Imagine  Mr.  SUMNER  in  Washington  from  1851  to  1857,  almost 
alone,  an  object  of  general  hatred,  receiving  by  nearly  every  mail 
threats  of  violence  and  assassination,  possessed  with  a  modest  distrust 
of  his  own  convictions,  and  exhibiting  an  amiable  deference  to  the 
opinions  of  other  people!  Nothing  but  the  absolute  certainty  of  his 
confidence  in  his  cause  and  in .  himself  could  have  sustained  him  in 
those  years  of  obloquy  and  peril. 

I  have  spoken  of  his  injustice  to  his  associates  and  his  intolerance 


LIFE   AND    CHARACTER   OF   CHARLES   SUMNER.  103 

of  opposition.  But  the  harshness  and  bitterness  with  which  for  the 
time  being  he  spoke  of  men  who  opposed  the  measures  he  had  at 
heart,  he  never  felt  toward  mere  personal  antagonists.  I  may  sur 
prise  some  persons  who  have  not  carefully  studied  Mr.  SUMNER,  but 
I  am  sure  of  the  assent  of  those  who  knew  him  best,  when  I  declare 
that  he  was  as  free  as  any  man  I  ever  knew  from  personal  hatreds, 
and  that  his  lofty  and  generous  nature  was  absolutely  incapable  of 
revenge.  Let  the  man  whom  he  considered  to  have  most  wronged 
him,  or  to  have  most  wronged  the  Republic,  but  unite  with  him 
heartily  in  any  cause  which  was  dear  to  him,  and  the  bitterest  es 
trangements  were  forgotten. 

Who  shall  say  that  he  thought  more  highly  of  himself  than  he  de 
served;  that  he  demanded  for  himself  or  his  opinion  greater  consid 
eration  than  would  now  be  accorded  to  them  by  the  judgment  of 
mankind  ?  In  the  words  of  that  fine  sentence  of  the  Ethica  of  Aris 
totle,  applied  by  the  English  historian  to  the  younger  Pitt,  "  He 
thought  himself  worthy  of  great  things,  being  in  truth  worthy." 

There  was  at  least  nothing  petty  or  mean  in  these  traits.  They 
were  the  foibles  of  a  lofty  arid  noble  nature. 

"  To  his  own  self  not  always  just, 

Bound  in  the  bonds  which  all  men  share; 
Confess  the  failings  as  we  must, 
The  lion's  mark  is  always  there." 

At  any  rate  there  he  was  to  be  seen  and  known  of  all  men.  There 
was  no  secrecy  in  his  nature.  He  was  the  soul  of  truth.  His  public 
and  his  private  life  corresponded.  Of  one  thing  those  who  love  him 
are  secure.  History  will  lay  bare  no  secret  which  will  tarnish  the 
whiteness  of  his  fame.  His  correspondence,  his  conversation,  the 
secrets  of  his  chamber,  may  be  made  known  to  mankind.  No  in 
trigue,  no  dissimulation,  no  artifice,  no  selfish  ambition,  no  impure 
thought  or  act  shall  be  found. 

"  Whatever  record  leap  to  light, 
He  never  shall  be  shamed." 


104  ADDRESS     OF     MR.     G.     F.     HOAR     ON     THE 

He  was  hearty  and  generous  in  his  friendships.  No  man  took 
greater  delight  in  other  men's  services  to  freedom  or  rewarded  them 
with  a  more  precious  and  bountiful  commendation.  To  receive  his 
praise  for  any  service  to  human  liberty  was  like  being  knighted  by 
Cceur  de  Lion  or  Henry  V  on  the  field  of  battle. 

He  said  lately  that  the  happiest  period  of  his  life  was  when  he  was 
a  student  at  law.  The  time  of  the  close  of  the  war  must  have  been 
equally  so.  He  had  seen  the  great  desire  of  his  life  fulfilled.  The 
eyes  which  had  ached  with  sorrow  and  with  toil  had  gazed  upon  the 
glory  and  the  beauty  of  the  harvest.  The  martyr  of  free  speech,  the 
solitary  and  despised  champion  of  liberty,  had  lived  to  be  the  honored 
leader  of  the  Senate.  The  friendship  and  confidence  of  Lincoln,  who 
knew  and  loved  the  noble  nature  of  the  man;  the  gratitude  of  the 
American  people,  the  recollection  of  great  tasks  successfully  achieved, 
the  affection  of  hosts  of  friends,  the  expectation  of  new  and  most  con 
genial  employments  in  the  country's  service,  the  enjoyments  of  litera 
ture,  the  resources  of  art — everything  that  could  adorn,  everything 
that  could  delight  the  remainder  of  a  life  scarce  past  its  vigorous 
prime,  seemed  to  be  his. 

But  fate  ordered  it  otherwise.  The  voice  of  duty,  obeyed  at  prime, 
called  him  to  new  sacrifices  and  new  strifes  until  the  end. 

The  last  morning  on  which  he  came  to  the  Senate  Chamber,  to  the 
inquiry  of  a  friend  who  met  him,  he  answered:  "I  am  tired,  tired." 
As  I  heard  of  it  just  afterward,  I  thought  of  a  sentence  in  that  mag 
nificent  opening  passage  of  his  first  great  discourse,  in  which  he  seems 
to  dedicate  himself  to  the  service  of  the  Republic:  "We  must  not  fold 
our  hands  in  slumber,  nor  abide  content  with  the  past.  To  each  gen 
eration  is  committed  its  peculiar  task;  nor  does  the  heart  which  re 
sponds  to  the  call  of  duty  find  rest  except  in  the  grave."  Ah,  heart, 
so  dauntless  and  so  tender,  well  hast  thou  kept  that  early  vow!  Ever 
responding  to  the  call  of  duty,  from  the  day  when  Massachusetts 
gave  thee  to  thy  country  in  the  fullness  of  thy  youthful  promise,  till 


LIFE   AND    CHARACTER   OF   CHARLES    SUMNER.  105 

that  saddest  moment  when  we  saw  thee  borne  cold  in  death  from  the 
portals  of  the  Capitol,  thou  hast  known  no  rest.  At  last  thy  country 
gives  thee  back  to  thy  native  Commonwealth,  to  sleep  in  her  holy 
pilgrim  soil  with  the  kindred  dust  of  the  sons,  many  and  brave,  who 
have  well  obeyed  the  lesson  she  taught  them  in  their  youth — with 
Samuel  Adams,  and  Otis,  and  the  elder  and  the  younger  Quincy, 
and  John  Adams  and  his  illustrious  son.  Like  them,  he  learned  at 
her  knees  the  lessons  of  liberty.  Like  them,  he  encountered  hatred 
and  strife  and  peril.  Like  them,  he  lived  to  see  the  seed  he  had 
sown  bearing  its  abundant  harvest,  and,  like  theirs,  his  grateful  coun 
try  shall  preserve  his  fame. 

"  For  the  memorial  of  virtue  is  immortal,  because  it  is  known  with 
God  and  with  men.  When  it  is  present,  men  take  example  at  it,  and 
when  it  is  gone  they  desire  it ;  it  weareth  a  crown  and  triumpheth 
forever,  having  gotten  the  victory,  striving  for  undefiled  rewards." 


ADDRESS  OF    MR.    CONGER,   OF    MICHIGAN. 

Mr.  SPEAKER  :  The  true  analysis  of  human  character  requires  pro 
found  knowledge,  extensive  research,  and  the  most  critical  judgment 
of  any  subject  that  commands  the  attention  of  the  human  mind. 

Great  names  on  the  pages  of  history  shine  ever  with  their  own 
unborrowed  light.  Eulogy  cannot  add  to  their  glory,  detraction  can 
not  dim  their  luster. 

The  ostracism  of  one  generation  may  be  supplemented  by  adora 
tion  of  another.  The  scorn  and  derision  of  one  age  may  merge  in 
devotion  and  reverence  in  those  that  follow,  and  the  very  implements 
of  disgraceful  torture  may  become  sacred  symbols  of  devout  faith  to 
myriad  followers.  Yet  all  this  while  the  true  character  of  the  indi 
vidual  had  remained  unchanged ;  his  life  in  all  its  relations  to  the 
world  in  which  he  moved  had  been  rounded, perfected, finished;  and 


106         ADDRESS  OF  MR.  CONGER  ON  THE 

it  held  its  place  in  the  grand  living  panorama  of  the  world's  progres 
sion,  unaltered  and  unalterable. 

Seldom,  if  ever,  can  the  then  present  age  be  so  free  from  the  errors 
of  prejudice  or  partiality  as  to  warrant  confidence  in  the  accuracy  of 
its  judgments  or  the  correctness  of  its  conclusions.  If  such  sugges 
tions  are  forcible  regarding  the  great  names  of  history  whose  achieve 
ments  were  illustrated  by  mere  physical  endurance  or  personal  daring, 
with  what  modesty  should  we  venture  to  delineate  the  character  and 
motives  of  that  illustrious  citizen  who  in  one  and  the  same  age,  the 
same  generation,  and  among  the  same  people,  has  been  the  object  of 
unlimited  hate,  of  boundless  veneration  ! 

CHARLES  SUMNER,  in  the  fullness  and  perfectness  of  his  character, 
would  have  been  impossible  in  any  other  age,  among  any  other 
people,  in  any  other  phase  of  human  civilization.  He  was  cast  in  the 
mold  of  these  times,  imbued  with  the  spirit  of  this  age,  but  enriched 
with  the  learning  of  the  world;  of  great  moral  courage,  command 
ing  presence,  intense  individuality,  his  personality  and  self-estimation 
almost  offensive,  his  tenacity  of  will  bordering  upon  obstinacy,  influ 
enced  little  by  the  tender  emotions  of  human  nature,  but  a  devout 
worshiper  of  abstract  truth  and  right,  and  a  fearless  champion  in 
their  defense  whenever  and  wherever  occasion  arose. 

For  the  marvelous  changes  in  our  civilization  to  which  he  was  to 
contribute  his  very  faults  were  necessities,  his  very  failings  were  in 
dispensable,  his  pride  and  egotism  and  self-assurance  were  funda 
mental  elements  of  his  success. 

His  lack  of  personal  sympathy  and  emotional  affection  left  room 
and  place  for  all  humanity. 

For  him, insult  and  injury  sanctified  the  cause  which  he  defended; 
opprobium  and  scorn  hallowed  the  theories  which  he  had  espoused, 
and  had  imbued  with  his  own  intense  personality.  Common  truths 
were  enlarged  to  immortal  grandeur  in  his  vision,  when  adorned  with 
the  gems  of  his  eloquence  and  surrounded  with  the  halo  of  his  learning. 


LIFE   AND   CHARACTER   OF    CHARLES    SUMNER.  107 

A  servile  and  degraded  race  were  to  him  kings  and  priests,  so  soon 
as  he  became  the  champion  of  their  rights  and  had  thrown  over  them 
the  banner  of  his  protection.  His  own  pathway  was  illuminated  by 
the  light  of  his  intense  individuality,  and  all  who  traveled  with  him 
along  that  royal  road  were  clothed  in  purple,  and  all  who  went  by 
other  ways  were  groping  in  darkness. 

Governments  and  people,  working  out  the  problem  of  their  growth 
otherwise  than  by  his  elaborated  plan,  were  rushing  madly  to  ruin. 
Constitutions  and  laws  lacking  the  absolute  assertion  of  the  grand 
truths  of  humanity  were  in  his  eyes  a  delusion  and  a  snare. 

To  him  the  absolute  equality  of  all  human  beings  on  the  plane  of 
civil  and  political  rights  left  no  place  for  partiality;  no  room  for 
prejudice. 

The  vast  world  was  to  become  the  abode  of  enfranchised  millions. 
The  revelations  from  Heaven  and  the  arcana  of  nature  alike  shad 
owed  forth  the  universal  disenthrallment  of  humanity,  and  he  gloried 
in  the  belief  that  he  was  the  recognized  apostle  of  liberty.  All  things 
conspired  to  strengthen  such  a  conviction — the  admiration  of  friends, 
the  persecution  of  enemies,  the  stern  devotion  of  the  puritan,  the 
intense  hatred  of  the  chivalry,  the  boundless  confidence  of  the  op 
pressed,  and  the  scorn  of  the  dominant  race. 

Even  his  personal  peculiarities  strengthened  this  belief.  His  com 
manding  presence,  the  grand  intonations  of  his  far-sounding  voice, 
the  triumphant  utterance  of  his  splendid  sentences,  the  almost  bar 
baric  display  of  literary  wealth  gleaned  from  all  languages  and 
gathered  from  all  lands,  the  triumphal  progress  of  his  high-sounding 
oratory,  the  imperial  consciousness  of  his  right  to  the  throne,  and 
even  the  jealousy  that  would  brook  no  rival  near  that  throne,  all 
around  him  and  all  within  conspired  to  assure  him  that  he  was 
appointed  and  anointed  the  grand  high  priest  of  the  changing 
civilization  and  renovated  institutions  of  this  marvelous  era  of 
American  history. 


I08         ADDRESS  OF  MR.  CONGER  ON  THE 

True  to  that  conviction,  to  the  fixed  belief  in  his  calling  and  destiny, 
he  lived  and  labored  and  died. 

Whatever  his  faults,  whatever  his  failings,  he  never  faltered,  he 
never  wavered.  In  small  things  and  in  great,  every  occasion  found 
him  ready,  and  every  opportunity  was  a  renewal  of  his  devotion. 

Mr.  Speaker,  nearly  twenty  years  have  passed  since  I  first  met  Mr. 
SUMNER.  He  had  been  sojourning  for  a  fortnight  in  the  iron  mount 
ains  of  Marquette,  and  came  from  the  forest  to  the  steamer  to  go  up 
Lake  Superior  to  the  head  of  the  lake. 

As  we  passed  from  the  harbor  Mr.  SUMNER  said  that  for  two  weeks 
he  had  seen  no  newspapers,  and  was  ignorant  of  all  that  had  trans 
pired  in  the  outer  world  during  that  time.  I  had  the  pleasure  of 
giving  him  the  last  dailies  from  the  principal  cities  of  the  Union. 
As  he  glanced  over  the  pages  his  attention  became  fixed,  his  eye  kin 
dled,  he  hurried  from  paper  to  paper,  looking  hastily  in  each,  and 
then  went  for  his  portfolio  and  prepared  to  write.  He  looked  at  the 
clock,  went  out  upon  the  deck,  inquired  the  name  of  a  rocky  island 
we  were  then  passing,  and  wrote,  folded,  and  directed  a  letter.  It 
was  a  beautiful  Sabbath  morning  in  summer.  The  waters  of  the 
lake  mirrored  the  rocky  outline  of  Granite  Island  and  the  mountains 
on  the  mainland.  The  scenery  was  beautiful,  the  air  delicious,  the 
passengers  joyous. 

The  newspapers  which  Mr.  SUMNER  had  received  were  full  of  rec 
ords  of  the  whole  busy  world.  "  But  none  of  these  things  moved 
him." 

He  had  learned  from  the  newspapers  that  one  comparatively 
obscure  but  noble  man  was  languishing  in  prison  in  a  Christian 
country,  on  the  Christian  Sabbath,  for  refusing  to  obey  the  behests 
of  slavery  and  refusing  to  oppress  the  slave;  and  then  and  there  Mr. 
SUMNER  wrote  to  Passmore  Williamson  in  prison,  that  thrilling  letter 
which  not  only  cheered  the  prisoner  in  his  cell,  but  electrified  the 
Christian  world. 


LIFE    AND    CHARACTER   OF    CHARLES    SUMNER.  109 

But  I  will  not  dwell  longer  on  such  illustrations.  To  recount  them 
would  be  to  repeat  the  history  of  his  life.  Nor  will  I  further  eulo 
gize  the  Great  Commoner  of  the  nation.  Whether  in  intellect  and 
genius  he  will  rank  among  the  more  or  the  less  gifted  of  the  world's 
bright  spirits,  none  will  deny  to  him  the  proud  position  of  usefulness 
and  faithfulness  to  which  he  devoted  his  life.  For  him  to  have  been 
either  too  high  or  too  low,  too  great  or  too  small,  would  alike  have 
unfitted  him  for  the  grand  achievements  of  his  distinguished  career. 

It  has  been  said  that  along  our  Pacific  coast  the  light-house  should 
not  be  placed  on  the  lower  headlands  that  receive  the  shock  of  the 
incoming  wave,  lest  the  waves  should  sweep  away  the  foundations, 
and  the  fog-bank  and  the  mist-wreath  should  too  often  obscure  the 
beacon  and  conceal  the  warning  light  from  the  eyes  of  the  imperiled 
mariner;  nor  on  the  overlooking  mountain's  height,  where  the  mount 
ain  and  the  pharos  would  alike  be  encompassed  by  the  brooding 
storm-clouds  of  those  higher  altitudes;  but  midway  of  these  extremes, 
in  that  serene  mid-region  between  the  counter  air-currents — those 
that  sweep  the  ocean  and  the  shore  below,  and  those  that  uphold  the 
cloudy  firmament  above.  Thus,  it  may  be,  that  along  the  border 
land  of  human  destiny  he  who  shall  have  wrought  the  grandest 
benefit  to  humanity  may  have  neither  the  warm  affections  and  tender 
emotions  that  cluster  around  the  homelier  walks  of  life,  nor  yet  the 
transcendent  genius  of  him — 

"  Who  on  mind's  high  steep  can  stand 
And  marshal  with  his  sceptered  hand 

The  whirlwind  and  the  cloud ; 
Can  write  his  name  too  deep  a  dye 
In  lightning's  traces  on  the  sky." 


ADDRESS    OF    yVLR.    J^HILLIPS,     OF    J^ANSAS. 

Mr.  SPEAKER  :  I  shall  say  but  little,  since  no  words  I  could  utter 
would  add  to  the  fame  of  the  illustrious  statesman.      And  yet  I 


HO  ADDRESS     OF     MR.      PHILLIPS     ON     THE 

come  to  offer  a  humble  tribute  to  his  memory  from  old  free  Kansas. 
The  State  I  have  in  part  the  honor  to  represent,  in  its  early  struggles 
for  existence  and  freedom,  elicited  the  warmest  sympathy  of  CHARLES 
SUMNER,  and  called  forth  from  him  some  of  the  grandest  parliament 
ary  efforts  that  dignified  the  history  of  the  Government. 

His  great  speech  on  the  Crime  against  Kansas  was  not  only  ani 
mated  by  that  spirit  of  lofty  philanthropy  which  ever  came  naturally 
from  his  great,  magnanimous  heart,  but  was  thrilled  through  and 
through  with  the  highest  conception  of  popular  liberty  in  America. 
That  speech,  too,  entailed  on  him  long  years  of  suffering,  and  was 
doubtless  the  means  of  prematurely  depriving  his  country  of  services 
she  ill  could  spare,  and  the  world  of  a  life  as  eminent  as  it  was  pure. 

In  the  history  of  the  past  twelve  years,  among  the  galaxy  of  great 
men  who  may  be  styled  the  fathers  of  our  second  revolution;  the 
men  who  when  the  storms  beat  and  the  winds  blew,  when  the  timid 
were  timid  and  the  faithless  faithless,  seized  the  very  misfortunes  and 
weaknesses  which  threatened  the  Government,  and  hewed  them  into 
the  foundation-stones  of  a  reconstructed  Republic — among  these 
men  six  names  stand  in  bold  relief:  SUMNER,  CHASE,  LINCOLN,  STE 
VENS,  SEWARD,  STANTON,  and  they  are  all  gone.  They  did  their 
share  of  the  work  ably  and  fearlessly,  and  God  Almighty  blessed 
them  in  this,  that  ere  they  died  they  had  the  privilege  of  seeing  peace 
and  liberty  clasp  hands  across  a  regenerated  continent. 

SUMNER  was  one  of  the  best  types  of  our  public  men.  A  scholar 
so  ripe,  an  orator  so  eloquent,  that  as  orator  or  scholar  we  may  justly 
feel  proud  of  him  as  the  peer  of  any  orator  or  scholar  of  any  country 
or  any  time;  a  statesman  who  squared  his  political  principles  by  the 
fundamental  maxims  of  right  and  wrong;  a  politician  whose  sympa 
thies  were  with  the  downtrodden  and  the  weak,  and  who  gave  to 
humanity  rather  than  to  party;  a  gentleman  withal,  whose  life  was 
so  dignified  and  pure  that  even  his  enemies  never  dared  with  the 
breath  of  slander  to  sully  his  fame. 


LIFE   AND    CHARACTER   OF   CHARLES    SUMNER.  Ill 

Some  men  are  great  actors;  others  eminent  for  executive  ability; 
others  are  great  thinkers.  Among  the  latter  no  one  was  more  emi 
nent  than  CHARLES  SUMNER.  He  seized  the  fresh  but  crude  ideas  as 
they  floated  up  from  the  public  mind,  and  molded  them  into  sym 
metry.  Always  clinging  to  the  fundamental  maxims  of  equality  and 
right,  when  dangers  threatened  the  edifice  that  is  the  safeguard  for 
the  security  and  liberty  of  forty  millions  of  people,  he  substituted  jus 
tice  as  a  political  foundation,  instead  of  expediency,  and  gave  to  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  fresh  life  and  better  application. 

Ours  is  a  government  of  the  people.  We  all  feel  most  acutely  the 
necessity  that  the  public  pulse  shall  beat  in  unison  with  the  outer  and 
inner  life  of  all  our  politics.  He  who  aspires  to  this  duty  has  a  double 
task;  to  appreciate  and  mold  public  sentiment,  and  then  to  lead\\,. 
In  both,  CHARLES  SUMNER  was  eminent.  He  stood  like  another 
Moses  before  the  people.  The  public  mind  was  oppressed  with 
danger,  and  part  of  it  befogged  with  prejudice.  Old  Constitution 
theorists  had  peddled  their  doctrines  at  every  cross-road  in  the 
country.  Many  true  men  wavered,  when  SUMNER,  standing  with  his 
compatriots  and,  like  the  ancient  prophets,  seizing  the  rod  directly 
from  the  hands  of  God  Almighty,  the  rod  of  eternal  justice,  smote  it 
upon  the  troubled  waters  and  bade  the  murmuring  people  "  Go  for 
ward!" 

Step  by  step  they  led  them  higher,  higher,  step  by  step,  until,  on 
the  top  of  another  Mount  Pisgah,  they,  amid  the  uncertainties,  the 
storm,  and  the  darkness,  saw  the  promised  land  of  future  American 
politics  stretched  out  for  the  feet  of  a  progressive  people.  When 
Mr.  SUMNER  spoke  he  spoke  not  only  to  the  Senate  Chamber — the 
Republic  was  his  auditorium.  His  speeches  went  forth  freighted 
with  the  best  life  and  thoughts  of  the  time;  went  forth  to  the  whole 
country,  to  arouse  a  universal  interest  and  provoke  a  universal  utter 
ance. 

His  sudden  death  was  not  the  extinction  of  a  life,  but  its  apothe- 


112  ADDRESS     OF     MR.     PHILLIPS. 

osis.  His  monument  is  built  in  the  history  of  his  country.  To-day 
we  stand  reverently  before  the  great  dead,  while  all  the  shadows  of 
conflicting  opinion  and  the  bitterness  of  partisanship  have  melted 
away. 

Mr.  Speaker,  I  move  that  the  House  do  now  adjourn. 

The  motion  was  agreed  to;  and  accordingly  the  House  adjourned. 


******  TO 


